Pope Francis will include an extra appointment to the college of cardinals in the December consistory, the Holy See announced on Monday. The pope has decided to create Archbishop Domenico Battaglia of Naples alongside the slate of new appointments announced Oct 6. Archbishop Battaglia, 61, has been seen as a rising star in the Italian Read more
Posts Tagged ‘college of cardinals’
Timothy Radcliffe: “The more perilous the future, the more urgent it is to seek the common good together”
Thursday, October 31st, 2024
“I believe that this profound human thirst for infinite happiness, which we all feel at times, is the most real thing there is. “To hope for it is to live in the real world,” insists Timothy Radcliffe, the former Master of the Dominican Order (1992-2001), who Pope Francis named when he announced the nomination of Read more
The post-October 7 world and the ‘new covenant’ between Jews and Christians
Monday, October 14th, 2024
One year ago, the longest and deadliest war between Israelis and Arabs since 1948 began, having profound effects on the Catholic Church. Pope Francis marked the anniversary of the beginning of the war in Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack by calling a day of prayer and fasting for peace. On October 6, Read more
Rethinking the role of the College of Cardinals
Monday, April 15th, 2024
Cardinal Walter Kasper (pictured), a retired member of the German Curia, has advocated for reevaluating the tasks assigned to the College of Cardinals. Speaking at a lecture in Salzburg, Kasper highlighted the need for adaptation amidst ongoing synodal changes and decentralisation within the Church. He suggested revitalising the early Church tradition of provincial and plenary Read more
Bergoglio’s List: the pope’s bid to heal a broken Church through synodality
Monday, July 10th, 2023
What do Cardinal Gerhard Müller and the Reverend James Martin SJ have in common? They are both members of the Roman Catholic clergy who tend to be polarising figures in the Church. The first is a hero of traditionalists, while the second is a champion of those who want reform. And now the German cardinal Read more
What is the lay governance debate all about?
Monday, September 5th, 2022
While last week’s meeting of the College of Cardinals failed to produce the kind of “big news” event some had predicted, the consistory did ask the cardinals to reflect upon Pope Francis’ recent reform of the Roman Curia. But while the wild rumour that Francis was mulling the appointment of a coadjutor vice-pope didn’t pan Read more
College of Cardinals now less Eurocentric
Monday, November 30th, 2020
Pope Francis elevated 13 new cardinals on Saturday making the College of Cardinals more representative of the universal Church. Only 11 cardinals participated in the consistory in St Peter’s Basilica all having been in quarantine for two weeks and all wore face masks during the ceremony. Two new cardinals who were unable to be physically Read more
The church needs women cardinals
Monday, August 3rd, 2020
Two weeks back, La Croix and The Tablet both reported on an interview with the president of the French bishops’ conference, Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort. During the interview, he envisioned that “the Holy See will one day be led by the Pope surrounded by a college of cardinals in which there would be women.” The Read more
Pope victim of half-reported answers about McCarrick abuse
Thursday, May 30th, 2019
A transcript of Pope Francis’ comments about disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick only half-reported what he said, the Vatican Communications office says. The truncated transcript of Francis’s lengthy interview with Mexico’s Televisa reporter, Valentina Alazaraki, claimed Francis said he didn’t know anything about accusations of McCarrick’s sexual abuse before the accusations became public last year. What Read more
Why cardinals have ranks, and how Pope Francis changed them
Thursday, June 28th, 2018
Pope Francis made an unexpected change Tuesday in the structure of the College of Cardinals, adding some curial officials to the rank of “cardinal bishops,” the highest rank within the college. The College of Cardinals is structured in three orders, or ranks: the order of “cardinal deacons,” the order of “cardinal priests,” and the order Read more