The Salesian Family Celebrates
Cardinal Angel Fernandez
(ANS - Vatican City – Sept. 30, 2023) – At a public consistory in St. Peter’s Square on the morning of September 30, Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals. It was a celebration of the universality of the Church and a renewal of the thrust of evangelization.
For the 1st time (as far as anyone knows), the
active leader of a religious order/congregation was made a cardinal. That is
the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime.
There was great emotion for the entire
Salesian Family when the Holy Father pronounced the official formula for the
creation of the 21 new cardinals, and even more when, face to face with the
Rector Major kneeling before him, he imposed on him a scarlet skullcap and
biretta and the cardinal’s ring and publicly assigned him the “Salesian”
diaconate of the Church of Mary Help of Christians in via Tuscolana.
The subsequent moment of embrace of Cardinal
Fernandez Artime with the Holy Father was at the same time a symbolic gesture,
a sign of fidelity in ecclesial service, and also an expression of concrete
closeness and affinity between the two pastors.
Earlier, in the solemn rite which witnessed
the first of the 21 nominated cardinals, the Augustinian Cardinal Robert
Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and the lone American
among the new cardinals, gave a message of homage and expressed his thanks to
the Pontiff on behalf of all. He emphasized how the cardinalate brings with it
honors, but above all responsibilities, and the sense of inadequacy of the new
cardinals in the face of the greatness of the service to which they are now
called. in a spirit of trust in Divine Providence and in the Pontiff’s
farsightedness, however, he renewed everyone’s adherence to the task assigned,
to be carried out with absolute dedication, utmost humility, and total loyalty.
After the reading of the New Testament passage
of Pentecost (Acts 12:1-11), the Holy Father offered some hints to the new
cardinals – valid also for all members of the college of cardinals.
“Before we are apostles – priests, bishops,
cardinals – we are ‘Parthians, Medes, Elamites.’... And this should awaken in
us awe and gratitude for having received the grace of the Gospel in our
respective peoples of origin. I believe that this is very important and should
not be forgotten,” said the Pope, urging the newly created cardinals to
preserve “amazement and gratitude” for the action of the Holy Spirit who has
reached them in their languages and peoples, through the mediation of so many
people: parents, grandparents, catechists, et al.
Therefore, Francis continued, almost as if to
suggest a pastoral style of proximity and simplicity, it is important to
remember that “faith is transmitted in dialect,” and that before being “evangelizers”
one has to have been “evangelized.”
The Holy Father’s last mention was of the
universality of the college of cardinals, an expression of a “symphonicity” and
“synodality” that is proper to the whole Church. “Diversity is necessary; it is
indispensable. But every sound must contribute to the common design. And for
this, it is fundamental to listen to each other…. And the conductor of the
orchestra is at the service of this kind of miracle that each time is the
performance of a symphony.”
The Holy Father concluded stating that it is
precisely the image of the orchestra, which teaches us “always better to be a
symphonic and synodal Church ... in the consoling trust that that we have the
Holy Spirit as our master: the inner master of each one and the master of
walking together,” who “creates variety and unity” and who “is harmony itself.”
The celebration ended with the Holy Father’s apostolic
blessing for the approximately 12,000 faithful present in St. Peter’s Square
for this festive day; who, under a still summer sun, then lined up for the
traditional “courtesy visits” to the new cardinals in the corridors of the
Vatican Apostolic Palace.
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