Having a cardinal means the world to Tongans says the country’s fourth-ever bishop and now first cardinal, Soane Mafi.
When he gets back to Tonga the good times will roll, Tongan-style, Cardinal Mafi told CruxNow.
“Many pigs will be killed!” he told John Allen, quickly adding “I’ll try to save as many as I can”.
Tens of thousands of Tongans from all walks of life sent Mafi notes of congratulations and best wishes, including the country’s King, Topou VI and his wife Queen Nanasipau’u.
King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u travelled to Rome for Saturday’s consistory ceremony.
Mafi says he had no idea he was going to be named a Cardinal and was in bed at 4am when woken with the news by a phone call from his brother who lives in San Francisco.
Mafi said he had only met Pope Francis once, at last year’s Synod, and that was to explain where Tonga was.
“That’s far, far away!” replied the Holy Father.
Commenting on the vexed issue of the 2014 Synod, Mafi said he liked the openness, and reinforced his comment by saying that his earlier experience in 2012 seemed “tighter” and “more controlled”.
“There was true friendliness and plenty of free discussion,” he said.
“But there was also something deeper. I sensed the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, working through that openness.”
Admitting the enormity of the responsibility has not yet sunk in, Mafi says he is still new to the Vatican scene but hopes the spirit will continue into the 2015 Synod.
Having already beaten the odds to become a bishop and a cardinal, Mafi knows there’s still one job left in Catholicism — one that’s also never had a Tongan. He regards the idea of a Tongan pope, however, as fairly implausible.
“That would really be the end of time!” he laughed.
Cardinal Mafi studied at Loyola University in Maryland, and at aged 53 is the world’s youngest cardinal.
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