Friar Raniero Cantalamessa (86) says he has asked Pope Francis "for a dispensation from episcopal ordination."

"The bishop's job is to be a shepherd and a fisherman. At my age, I could do little as a ‘shepherd', but what I could do as a ‘fisherman' I can still do by announcing the word of God?" he says.

If as cardinal-elect he were ordained as bishop, canon law would place Cantalamessa outside his Franciscan order.

Last month, the pope named Cantalamessa as a cardinal along with twelve other men in a consistory to be held this coming Saturday.

Cantalamessa says he received that piece of news "like everyone else, listening live to the Pope's Angelus."

"If I didn't have such a special name… I would have thought it was someone else!", he says.

For the past 40 years, Cantalamessa has been the Preacher to the Papal Household. He is the only cleric with permission to preach to the Pope.

Under Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and now Francis, he has led the Roman Curia through their annual meditations for Advent, Lent and Good Friday. He also preached to cardinals in the 2005 and 2013 conclaves.

Though Cantalamessa will receive the red hat November 28, he says Francis still wants him to continue with his preaching assignment in the Curia.

"The Holy Father has informed me that he wants my mission to continue… and I have already begun work on the Advent preaching to be held this year in the Paul VI Hall, to allow the distance required by the epidemic."

Though renouncing episcopal ordination is the exception rather than the rule for cardinals-elect, it is still a possibility provided for in canon law (CIC can. 351).

Source

• Novena
• Image: Crux Now

Fr Raniero Cantalamessa was preaching at a Good Friday service presided over by Pope Francis at St Peter's Basilica.

In such an alternative universe, faith, hope and love do not come from God but from money, the Capuchin priest warned.

Instead of believing "Everything is possible to one who has faith", as Jesus said, people believe "Everything is possible to the one who has money".

The narrative of a person doing evil for "30 pieces of silver" keeps repeating itself throughout history, Fr Cantalamessa said.

He said money is involved in all of today's social ills, including the illicit drug trade, women pushed into prostitution, children snatched for their organs, the mafia, political corruption, the sale of weapons and the ongoing financial crisis.

"Isn't it just as scandalous that some people collect salaries and pensions that are 100 times greater than those of the people who work under them?" he asked.

People should ask themselves whether they have bit of Judas inside them, since "you can also betray Jesus for other kinds of rewards", Fr Cantalamessa said.

"Whoever betrays his wife or her husband betrays Jesus," he said, and the same goes for government leaders who betray the public or anyone who betrays his or her conscience.

Such betrayals are worse because they happened after Christ's death and Resurrection; Judas didn't know Jesus was really the Son of God, while "we do".

"Jesus never abandoned Judas", but Judas abandoned all hope when he hanged himself in remorse for contributing to the death of an innocent man.

"Judas's greatest sin wasn't having betrayed Jesus, but having doubted his mercy," the preacher said.

Everyone is capable of betraying Jesus as Judas did, but no-one should make the mistake of doubting God's mercy and willingness to forgive, the preacher said.

Social justice themes also predominated at the traditional Way of the Cross meditations in Rome, attended by Pope Francis.

Connections were drawn between Christ's suffering and those of the homeless, jobless, migrants, and women.

Sources

• The Tablet (Good Friday service)
• The Tablet (Way of the Cross)
• Image: Christiano Cattolico