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| Soon to be Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, a good friend to Ireland |
This Saturday, February 18th 2012, Pope Benedict will place the red hat on the heads of 22 new Cardinals. The colour red symbolises readiness to shed one's blood for Christ, to endure martyrdom for the faith if necessary. The office of Cardinal derives from the historical responsibility of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome as the close collaborators of the Pope, and hence the Cardinals are the electors of a Pope. To maintain this bond with Rome, each Cardinal is assigned a titular Church in Rome, where he visits when in the city. For example, the titular Church of Cardinal Sean Brady is the Church of Saints Quirico and Giulitta in the Roman Forum.
The heads of the dicasteries (departments) of the curia, because they closely help the Pope in the exercise of his authority, are usually made Cardinals. Several of these offices have received newly appointed heads recently, and thus many of the new intake this time are of this category. They are: Archbishops Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, João Braz de Aviz (Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life), Manuel Monteiro de Castro (Major Penitentiary), Giuseppe Bertello (President of the Vatican Governorate), Domenico Calcagno (Chairman of the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See), Giuseppe Versaldi (President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See), Santos Abril y Castelló (Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore), Edwin Frederick O'Brien (grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre), Antonio Maria Vegliò (President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People) and Francesco Coccopalmerio (President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts).
Also on the list are eight diocesan Bishops: Archbishops Giuseppe Betori (Archbishop of Florence), George Alencherry (Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church), Thomas Christopher Collins (Archbishop of Toronto), Willem Jocoby Eijk (Archbishop of Utrecht), Rainer Maria Woelki (Archbishop of Berlin), Timothy Michael Dolan (Archbishop of New York) and Dominik Duka (Archbishop of Prague) and Bishop John Tong Hon (Bishop of Hong Kong).
It is a practice also for the Pope to give the red hat to some priests, over eighty years of age, and thus not eligible to vote in a conclave, who have given distinguished service to God and the Church in the field of scholarship. This time, he is naming three of these Cardinals along with a distinguished Archbishop: Fr. Prosper Grech, consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Karl Josef Becker, professor emeritus of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Msgr. Julien Ries, Professor Emeritus of History of Religions at the Catholic University of Leuven, and Archbishop Lucian Muresan, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.
A nice feature of the day of the Consistory is that the Papal Household is opened up to the public to go in and greet the new Cardinals. Huge crowds of Romans, visiting guests of the new Cardinals, pilgrims and many others, go in for this special occasion.
