Colleges are Increasingly Woke...
Even the College of Cardinals
Cardinals are continually “aging out” of voting age. Which means, of course, that Popes must continue to appoint more. This easily explains why Pope Francis has appointed many new cardinals.. It does not, however, explain the reasons for WHO he has chosen. And the who, is the most important part.
Before we dive into the individuals, why don’t we look at a few bullet point facts about the College of Cardinals:
A Cardinal’s number one job is to choose the next Pope.
Over 2/3 of the current cardinals have been appointed by Pope Francis.
Pope Paul VI changed the voting age to under 80. He also changed the number of voting cardinals to 120, as opposed to the 53 that was the norm until 1958.
It is said that Cardinals wear red to signify their willingness to die for the Catholic Church. Seems pretty important then, that we choose men who actually ARE willing to do so.
Pope Francis has chosen many concerning picks over the years, but we’re going to focus on the latest “class” of 21. Just 18 of them are of voting age, so we’ll focus on a few of those.
New Cardinal number 1: Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández of Argentina.
Low hanging fruit here. If you were looking for a concerning pick, we
ll, you found one. Archbishop Fernández co-authored a book called “Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing” While the Archbishop explains that quotes from a poem he wrote such as,
"How was God so ruthless to give you that mouth…
No one can resist, witch, hide it."
have been taken out of context, they seem a bit difficult to explain away. I mean…imagine your parish priest writing this? Awkward. Supposedly the book was written as a catechesis tool for teenagers, with the contributions of young people at his parish at the time…which is somehow supposed to make us feel better? He says that the book contains no heresy and therefore cannot be held against him.
Two other notes of concern are that he seems to have protected a priest from sexual abuse allegations in 2019, and seems to support the possibility of the blessing of same sex unions. On the first note, he denies it, but is quoted by the AP as saying,
"Today I would certainly act very differently and certainly my performance was insufficient."
On the second note, I’m going to reprint his quote, in context, so that you can judge for yourself. The concerning part is at the end. He was asked if he agreed with the dicastery’s 2021 declaration that “the Church does not have, and cannot have, the power to bless unions of persons of the same sex.” His response:
“Look, just as I am firmly against abortion (and I challenge you to find someone in Latin America who has written more articles than me against abortion), I also understand that ‘marriage’ in the strict sense is only one thing: that stable union of two beings as different as male and female are, who in that difference are capable of engendering new life.
There is nothing that can be compared to that and to use that name to express something else is neither good nor correct. At the same time, I believe that we must avoid gestures or actions that could express something different. That is why I think that the greatest care must be taken to avoid rites or blessings that could feed this confusion.
Now, if a blessing is given in such a way that it does not cause that confusion, it will have to be analyzed and confirmed. As you will see, there is a point at which we leave a properly theological discussion and move on to a question that is rather prudential or disciplinary.”
New Cardinal number 2: Bishop Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar of Portugal.
At just 49, he is exceptionally young for a Cardinal. A quote from him is circulating that reads,
"We don't want to convert young people to Jesus Christ.”
As he is in charge of the current WYD this is a bit concerning. I tried to check out the context of the quote…but it's in Portuguese, and sometimes I can barely speak English, so I'm out on that one.
(It’s worth noting in the interest of transparency that none of these men did interviews in English. I love y’all, but I’m not learning any of these languages for you, so I am at the mercy of translators ;)
From what I can see, he has been taken out of context on this. The newly appointed Cardinal himself clarified to The Pillar saying,
"Since the first edition of WYD, the popes have been inviting all young people to meet each other, to meet with the pope and to experience the living Christ. That is what we want to happen, and that is what I was trying to get across.”
However, what I found more interesting, was the response of his local clergy in Lisbon. None of the conservative or liberal clergy of Portugal seem interested in him as the head of their diocese. One priest is quoted as saying, "If he is made Patriarch of Lisbon], then it must be the will of God, because nobody else wills it, that's for sure."
Also of note, he is a former politician, of the socialist party. From what I can tell, (I still don't read Portuguese) this means something a bit different than it does here, and is considered "center left." It appears as though they replaced a Communist regime, so this would be less extreme. However, it does seem that the party's views align well with the direction the Vatican seems to be headed.
New Cardinal number 3: Cardinal-elect Gregor Rvs of Poland.
This pick is super into ecumenism, and inter-religious dialogue. In fact, he wrote a book called There is Room for Everyone in the Church, and has called his own synod. I don’t know about you, but add that to the list of words I’d be ok never hearing again.
In a 2022 interview, he is quoted as saying,
“I think we are at a point where the Holy Spirit is calling us to de-clericalize the Church everywhere we can,” he said in a 2022 interview. “The Church should not be clerical at all.
We must look carefully at where are those places where the priest is absolutely irreplaceable and must serve there, and where are those places where a lay person, filled with the appropriate gifts of the Holy Spirit, can undertake ministry.”
Is it true that priests are stretched thin? Absolutely. But it seems to me like it might be a good idea to foster more faithful vocations, rather than to farm out priestly responsibilities to the laity.
New Cardinal number 4: Bishop Stephen Sau-yan Chow of Hong Kong.
The CCP has corrupted just about every institution in China, and the Church is no exception. The Vatican has an agreement with the Chinese government that was brokered in 2018, and has since been renewed twice, once in 2020, and once in 2022.
Among other things, it allows the CCP to choose bishops, as long as the Holy See approves the picks. These bishops are largely chosen from the government-sponsored Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. While this is very concerning, the Vatican has repeatedly spoken of continued "dialogue" with the CCP.
However, it seems the communist party leaders may not be as excited about that dialogue, as they recently appointed two bishops without approval of the Holy See. Not to worry though! According to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin,
"in view of the greater good of the diocese and the fruitful exercise of the bishop’s pastoral ministry" the Pope has now given his blessing to at least one of these bishops.
Add “pastoral” and dialogue” to the words I can live without.
Ok, so back to this pick. He is from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that hypothetically has a little more independence from the CCP. Chow told reporters that he was shocked to be picked and said, “For Hong Kong, (I hope) the city can have more reconciliation. This is what I hope (we) can achieve.”
He is known to be politically moderate...which seems to be the overall best way to not be arrested, but would be considered liberal on the American scale. He was reported as saying that all Chinese Catholics should, “love the country and love the church.”
If there's one thing we can trust even less than our media, its the state sponsored Chinese media, so I suppose we'll never know if he really said that or not. I do think this pick is interesting though, in terms of Vatican + CCP relations, as Chow is not a state appointed bishop. Maybe they can dialogue about it.
New Cardinal number 5: Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, South Sudan
This pick is more interesting, than concerning. Pope Francis has chosen many more “far-flung” cardinals than have been chosen in the past, and some have interesting political/cultural indications.
The Catholic Church in Africa faces the challenge of countries largely built on tribalism, a challenge difficult to understand in the United States. When Ameyu was appointed as Archbishop of the Juba diocese, he was accused by local clergy and lay people of having two concubines and six biological children. It has since been said that these allegations were made because the Archbishop is not of the Bari ethnic community that the locals are predominantly a part of.
Despite protests, including one in which clergy were attacked and injured, the Pope stood firm in his choice, and the new Archbishop was appointed. Upon recently hearing that he would be a cardinal, he said, "We want to thank the Lord for giving us the gift of elevation. This is not an elevation for one person but for the whole Church."
Some are speculating that this could be a move by the Pope to address some of the concerns of the Church in Africa, specifically related to tribalism, and to unifying the Church there.
Phew. Ok. How to wrap all of that up? I think it is important to know who we’re dealing with, and who we can trust on Church teaching. However, there have been PLENTY of questionable clerics in the past, and the Church isn’t going anywhere. So be aware? Yes. Lose our hope? Of course not! Save this to read whenever you need a little hope booster!