POPE Benedict XVI has appointed Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle as the Catholic Church’s newest cardinal.
The pontiff elevated
Tagle, head of the Philippines’s largest archdiocese, to the College of
Cardinals along with five other archbishops from different countries.
He will now be the
country’s seventh cardinal, joining the line of retired Gaudencio
Cardinal Rosales of Manila and Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu.
During the general
audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he
would hold a consistory on November 24 to formally elevate the six new
cardinals.
“The cardinals have
the task of helping the Successor of Peter in the performance of his
ministry of confirming the brethren in the faith, and the principle and
foundation of unity and communion of the Church,” the Pope said.
Other Filipino
cardinals who already passed on include Rufino Cardinal Santos, Julio
Cardinal Rosales, Jaime Cardinal Sin and Jose Cardinal Sanchez.
At 55, Tagle will be
the world’s youngest cardinal.
The oldest living cardinal, following the
death of Cardinal Mayer in 2010, is Ersilio Tonini, 98, the archbishop
emeritus of Ravenna-Cervia.
Tagle, along with other Filipino bishops, is currently in Rome for the ongoing Synod of Bishops for New Evangelization.
A cardinal is a senior
ecclesiastical official in the Roman Catholic Church, ranking just
below the Pope and appointed by him as a member of the College of
Cardinals during a consistory.
The duties of the
cardinals are to attend the meetings of the Sacred College and to make
themselves available individually if the Pope desires their counsel.
Cardinals also have additional duties either leading many of the church’s dioceses and archdioceses or running the Roman Curia.
The most important function of cardinals in the Church is to elect the Roman pontiff who usually comes from their rank.
Tagle has been serving as the 32nd archbishop of Manila only since last December, succeeding Rosales.
Born in Manila on June
21, 1957, Tagle took his Philosophy and Theology degrees at the Ateneo
de Manila University’s San Jose Major Seminary.
He was ordained to the priesthood on February 27, 1982, at the age of 25.
From 1985 to 1992, he
was sent for further studies at the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., where he earned his doctorate in Sacred Theology.
Since 1997, Tagle has
been a member of the International Theological Commission of the
Vatican.
On December 12, 2001, he was ordained bishop of Imus. Since
then, he has been engaged in many activities. He travels throughout the
country in answer to many invitations as a speaker.
At the Synod of
Bishops held in Rome in 2005, he was elected member of the post-synodal
Council and assistant to Cardinal Angelo Scola, general reporter of this
Synod.
Tagle is currently the
chairman of the Commission on Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.