Pope appoints 17 cardinals including for three Asian nations

Pope appoints 17 cardinals including  for three Asian nations

 

CAMIL PARKHE | Friday, 14 October 2016 AT 10:53 PM IST

    

  

Sakal Times

blog, Pope Francis, cardinals, Asian countries, Patrick D’Rozario, Archbishop, Anthony Soter Fernandez,Emeritus Archbishop, Mario Zenari, Sakal Times, Camil Parkhe

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Breaking away from past tradition, Pope Francis has appointed 17 new cardinals, some of whom do not belong to the traditional ‘Catholic-centres’ regions. Among the new cardinals, three are from Asian countries namely Bangladesh, Malaysia and Syria. Incidentally, this is for the first time that Bangladesh and Malaysia will have a cardinal.

The new Asian cardinals are Patrick D’Rozario, Archbishop of Dhaka in Bangladesh, Anthony Soter Fernandez, Emeritus Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio in strife-torn Syria. This is also for the first time that the Central African Republic, Lesotho, and Papua New Guinea will have cardinals.

The ceremony to elevate the prelates, known as a consistory, would be held on November 19. The new cardinals will be inducted into the College of Cardinals by the pontiff on the eve of the closure of the Year of Mercy. Cardinals are the ones who wear red hats and are referred to as ‘princes of the Church’ due to the important roles they play in the Church matters. Asia currently has 12 per cent of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

Out of the new 17 prelates, 13 including Archbishop D’Rozario (73), are under 80 years old and thus eligible to vote in a conclave.

Christians in Bangladesh are less than half per cent of more than 160 million people in the country. With the appointment of Archbishop D’Rozario as cardinal, Asia will now have 22 cardinals and 15 of them are below 80 years of age, making them eligible to vote in a papal election. Selection of prelates from Asia is expected to assist the Vatican to get a better ‘Asian perspective’ on various issues.

Traditionally, a majority from the college of cardinals are from Europe and America. Incidentally, Pope Francis himself is the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in the 2,000-old history of the church.

This is the third round of appointments of cardinals made by Pope Francis since he was elected to the papacy in 2013.

For the past few decades, Catholics in Asia and Africa have been expecting a greater role for their local clergy in the global church hierarchy. The post of a cardinal is important because they advise the Pope on matters related to their respective regions. Most importantly, the college of cardinals participate in the conclave to elect one amongst them as the new Pope. Since the papacy of Pope Paul VI, the strength of college of cardinals has been kept restricted to 120.

Commenting on the selection of the new cardinals, Pope Francis has said, “They are coming from 11 nations expresses the universality of the church.”

Incidentally, at the age of 49, Cardinal-designate Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic, will become the youngest in the College Cardinals. Albanian clergy Fr Ernest Troshani Simoni, who for 28 years was imprisoned and tortured, at 88 is the eldest among the cardinal-elects.

NO INDIAN CHOSEN
No Indian has been chosen by Pope Francis as a new cardinal. India presently has five cardinals. They are Baselios Cleemis Catholicos of Trivandrum (Syro-Malankara rite), Telesphore P Toppo of Ranchi, Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, and George Alencherry of Ernakulam-Angamaly (Syro-Malabar rite). Rome-based Cardinal Ivan Dias has crossed 80 and therefore cannot participate in the conclave to elect a new pope. Significantly, Cardinal Ivan Dias was one of the cardinals considered papabile at the 2005 Papal conclave held after the death of Pope John Paul II and which had selected Pope Benedict XVI.