Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals over the weekend.
The Holy Father defied rumors that he would announce his resignation during a visit to the tomb of the last pope to voluntarily resign before Benedict.
Catholics in Brooklyn lined up to form a human chain to pray for peace in Ukraine.
Pope Francis knocked three times with a stick made of olive wood to open the holy door of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio in L’Aquila.
He is the first pope to open the door since Pope Celestine V, 728 years ago.
The Pope then prayed before the tomb of Pope Celestine V, the first pope to resign, in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio in L’Aquila.
Pope Celestine V was a Benedictine monk who was crowned pope in that same cathedral in 1294.
At the end of the Consistory, the twenty new cardinals, together with Pope Francis, went to greet Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Presenting the new cardinals to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is a custom that Pope Francis started and continues to do whenever he makes new cardinals.
Currents News Staff
In a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis welcomed 20 new men into the College of Cardinals.
Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, greeted the Pope on behalf of all the new cardinals. He spoke about their new mission of helping Pope Francis carry the cross of responsibility for the Church.
“With great joy, we wish to walk at your side knowing that you have been entrusted with the keys of the Kingdom. It is with gratitude and trepidation, therefore, Holy Father, that we offer you our profound respect and our obedience and, should the Lord wish it, even to the shedding of our blood,” said Cardinal Arthur Roche.
During his homily, the Pope reflected on the dual image of fire in the Gospels. He encouraged the newly appointed cardinals to be animated by the fire of the Holy Spirit to fulfill their mission within the Church.
“Jesus also wants to cast this fire on the earth today; he wants to light it again on the shores of our daily stories. He calls us, each of us, by name. We are not numbers. He calls us by name. He looks into our eyes each one of us, let us look into our eyes and he asks: tell me, you, new cardinals and you, brother cardinals: can I count on you? That is the Lord’s question,” said the Holy Father.
Pope Francis reminded the 20 men to keep their gaze on Christ to help them in their humble service to families, migrants, and the poor.
Each of the new cardinals knelt before the Pope to receive the zucchetto, berretta, and ring as signs of their pastoral ties to the Church. Pope Francis then greeted each cardinal with an embrace of peace.
Pope Francis will create 20 new Cardinals tomorrow.
As busloads of migrants continue to arrive in the Big Apple from the southern border, the city has started placing them in hotels.
A Staten Island priest’s road to sainthood has hit a speed bump.
Monsignor Sean G. Ogle’s Homily from Friday’s Mass on 8/26/22
Currents News Staff
After the August consistory, the number of cardinals rises to 227; 132 of them will be electors. In the 2013 conclave, there were 117 electors and two did not attend.
It’s not just a question of quantity, however. What has changed in the College of Cardinals in these last 9 years is the nationality of the cardinals.
For example, in 2013, Asia and Oceania had 11 cardinal electors. After the consistory, they had 24 and some came from areas where there have never been cardinals before, such as Tonga and Papua New Guinea.
“On the one hand, it responds to a need of this pontificate, which has always talked about emphasizing the peripheries and putting them on the front lines; on the other hand, it favors candidates who have a strong knowledge of the local areas but less of the universal Church,” said Fr. Roberto Regoli, a historian at Pontifical Gregorian University.
Europe does not change much in terms of numbers, going from 60 to 54. However, there is a drop in the number of Italian electors. In 2013, there were 28 and as of Saturday, the number will drop to 21. By the end of next year, another 7 will reach the elector age limit, and the figure will be reduced to only 14.
Of the 132 electors, approximately 36 work or worked in the curia, so their presence continues to carry a lot of weight.
Lastly—as of the August 27 consistory—almost 60% of the cardinal electors were chosen by Pope Francis.
Currents News Staff
They’re known as the “princes of the Church.”
Cardinals come from every corner of the world to help the pope guide the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, and most importantly, elect his successor.
Among the 20 cardinals most recently named by Pope Francis, only one comes from the United States, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego.
He says his nomination is a chance to bring the American Catholic community closer to the global Church.
“We in the United States tend to be very focused on the United States, we in our own diocese tend to be focused on our own diocese, and one of the contributions which in the role of Cardinals we can make is to point with some constancy to that idea that we are a part of a universal community of faith and part of a universal human family,” McElroy said.
A native of San Francisco, McElroy became bishop of San Diego in 2015, where he has attempted to apply the focus of Pope Francis’ pontificate on caring for migrants and the environment into his own community.
“We as a community of faith in San Diego have tried to sow some of the seeds of the renewal that he talks about, and has tried to move the Church toward the idea of missionary discipleship. The emphasis on pastoral theology has been exceedingly important in the life of the Church alongside of doctrine and biblical theology,” he added.
Pope Francis has said that he would consider stepping down from the papacy if he felt unable to govern the Church. In that case, Cardinal-designate McElroy will be one of the electors who select the next pope.
He says that whoever fills the Pope Francis’ shoes should aim to more fully implement his efforts to build a more inclusive Church attentive to the needs of the forgotten.
“I would hope the trajectories of the renewal Pope Francis has begun would be a high priority in seeking the next pope. I hope that would be many years down the road, but it’ll still be important to try to bring those currents more fully into the life of the Church at all levels,” he continued.
Bishop McElroy will become one of 16 Americans in the College of Cardinals, and at 68-years-old, he will be one of the 132 cardinals under 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a papal conclave.
New York City has welcomed several new groups of migrants that were bused from Texas. They are the lucky ones who have actually made it to the U.S.
There are new details about just how many migrants die just trying to cross the border.
Currents News Staff
One of the nation’s best hospitals, Boston Children’s Hospital, is now the first major pediatric hospital in the country to establish a gender surgery center.
According to their website, the center currently offers vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, chest reconstruction, breast augmentation, facial harmonization, and other gender affirmation surgeries to eligible patients.
All genital surgeries are only performed on patients 18 and up, but patients who want to pursue other surgeries could be as young as 15 if they meet eligibility requirements.
To talk more about this, we are joined by Dr. Patrick Lappert. Dr. Lappert is a plastic surgeon and member of the Catholic Medical Association, who’s also a Deacon in the Diocese of Birmingham.