November 24, 2012: Pope Benedict XVI created six new cardinals during a ceremony in
St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday. During the ceremony called the consistory,
the Pope conferred the cardinal’s red hat called ‘biretta’ on each of the new cardinals
and give them a ring, and a bull. Among the six new cardinals is Indian Major Archbishop
Mar Baselios Cleemis of Trivandrum, the head of the eastern rite Syro- Malankara Catholic
Church based in South India’s Kerala state. He is also given the titular seat of St.
Gregory VII, a church in Rome. The other Asians are Filipino Archbishop Luis Antonio
Tagle of Manila, and Patriarch Bechara Boutros Raï of Antioch of the Maronites from
Lebanon. During the consistory, the Pontiff also raised to the rank of cardinal US
Archbishop James Michael Harvey, Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Nigerian Archbishop
John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja and Colombian Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez of
Bogota. The Cardinals are the “Clergy of Rome”. They are responsible for electing
the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope: the Successor to St. Peter, and Vicar of Christ
on Earth – the universal Pastor of the universal Church.
Saturday’s event will
be fifth consistory of the 85-year old German Pope, with which he has created 90 cardinals.
The new cardinals will concelebrate the Mass with Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday morning,
25 November, Solemnity of Christ the King, in St. Peter's Basilica.
Below,
please find the full text of the Holy Father's allocution on the occasion .................................................................................... “I
believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”Dear Brothers and Sisters, These
words, which the new Cardinals are soon to proclaim in the course of their solemn
profession of faith, come from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, the synthesis
of the Church’s faith that each of us receives at baptism. Only by professing and
preserving this rule of truth intact can we be authentic disciples of the Lord. In
this Consistory, I would like to reflect in particular on the meaning of the word
“catholic”, a word which indicates an essential feature of the Church and her mission.
Much could be said on this subject and various different approaches could be adopted:
today I shall limit myself to one or two thoughts. The characteristic marks of
the Church are in accordance with God’s plan, as the Catechism of the Catholic
Church tells us: “it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church
one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these
qualities” (no. 811). Specifically, what makes the Church catholic is the fact that
Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity. While during his earthly life
Jesus’ mission was limited to the Jewish people, “to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel” (Mt 15:24), from the beginning it was meant to bring the light of the
Gospel to all peoples and lead all nations into the kingdom of God. When he saw the
faith of the centurion at Capernaum, Jesus cried out: “I tell you, many will come
from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven” (Mt 8:11). This universalist perspective can be seen, among other
things, from the way Jesus applied to himself not only the title “Son of David”, but
also “Son of Man” (Mk 10:33), as in the Gospel passage that we have just heard.
The expression “Son of Man”, in the language of Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired
by the vision of history found in the book of the prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), calls
to mind the figure who appears “with the clouds of heaven” (v. 13). This is an image
that prophesies a completely new kingdom, sustained not by human powers, but by the
true power that comes from God. Jesus takes up this rich and complex expression and
refers it to himself in order to manifest the true character of his Messianism: a
mission directed to the whole man and to every man, transcending all ethnic, national
and religious particularities. And it is actually by following Jesus, by allowing
oneself to be drawn into his humanity and hence into communion with God, that one
enters this new kingdom proclaimed and anticipated by the Church, a kingdom that conquers
fragmentation and dispersal. Jesus sends his Church not to a single group, then,
but to the whole human race, and thus he unites it, in faith, in one people, in order
to save it. The Second Vatican Council expresses this succinctly in the Dogmatic
Constitution Lumen Gentium: “All men are called to belong to the new people
of God. Therefore this people, while remaining one and unique, is to be spread throughout
the whole world and through every age, so that the design of God's will may be fulfilled”
(no. 13). Hence the universality of the Church flows from the universality of God’s
unique plan of salvation for the world. This universal character emerges clearly
on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fills the first Christian community
with his presence, so that the Gospel may spread to all nations, causing the one People
of God to grow in all peoples. From its origins, then, the Church is oriented kat’holon,
it embraces the whole universe. The Apostles bear witness to Christ, addressing people
from all over the world, and each of their hearers understands them as if they were
speaking his native language (cf. Acts 2:7-8). From that day, in the “power
of the Holy Spirit”, according to Jesus’ promise, the Church proclaims the dead and
risen Lord “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth”
(Acts 1:8). The Church’s universal mission does not arise from below, but
descends from above, from the Holy Spirit: from the beginning it seeks to express
itself in every culture so as to form the one People of God. Rather than beginning
as a local community that slowly grows and spreads outwards, it is like yeast oriented
towards a universal horizon, towards the whole: universality is inscribed within it. Our
Lord proclaims: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation”
(Mk 16:15); “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). With these
words, Jesus sends the Apostles to all creation, so that God’s saving action may reach
everywhere. But if we consider the moment of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, as recounted
in the Acts of the Apostles, we see that the disciples are still closed in their thinking,
looking to the restoration of a new Davidic kingdom. They ask the Lord: “will you
at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). How does Jesus answer?
He answers by broadening their horizons and giving them both athe
promise and a task: he promises that they will be filled with the power of the Holy
Spirit, and he confers upon them the task of bearing witness to him all over the world,
transcending the cultural and religious confines within which they were accustomed
to think and live, so as to open themselves to the universal Kingdom of God. At the
beginning of the Church’s journey, the Apostles and disciples set off without any
human security, purely in the strength of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel and the faith.
This is the yeast that spreads round the world, enters into different events and into
a wide range of cultural and social contexts, while remaining a single Church. Around
the Apostles, Christian communities spring up, but these are “the” Church which is
always the same, one and universal, whether in Jerusalem, Antioch, or Rome. And when
the Apostles speak of the Church, they are not referring to a community of their own,
but to the Church of Christ, and they insist on the unique, universal and all-inclusive
identity of the Catholica that is realized in every local church. The Church
is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, she reflects in herself the source of her life
and her journey: the unity and communion of the Trinity. Situated within the context
and the perspective of the Church’s unity and universality is the College of Cardinals:
it presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church.
In this Consistory, I want to highlight in particular the fact that the Church is
the Church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different
continents. She is the Church of Pentecost: amid the polyphony of the various voices,
she raises a single harmonious song to the living God. I cordially greet the official
Delegations of the different countries, the bishops, priests, consecrated persons,
and lay faithful of the various diocesan communities and all those who share in the
joy of the new members of the College of Cardinals – their family, friends and co-workers.
The new Cardinals, who represent different dioceses around the world, are henceforth
associated by a special title with the Church of Rome, and in this way they reinforce
the spiritual bonds that unite the whole Church, brought to life by Christ and gathered
around the Successor of Peter. At the same time, today’s rite expresses the supreme
value of fidelity. Indeed, the oath that you are about to take, venerable brothers,
contains words filled with profound spiritual and ecclesial significance: “I promise
and I swear, from now on and for as long as I live, to remain faithful to Christ and
his Gospel, constantly obedient to the Holy Apostolic Roman Church”. And when you
receive the red biretta, you will be reminded that it means “you must be ready to
conduct yourselves with fortitude, even to the shedding of your blood, for the increase
of the Christian faith, for the peace and well-being of the people of God”. Whereas
the consignment of the ring is accompanied by the admonition: “Know that your love
for the Church is strengthened by your love for the Prince of the Apostles”. In
these gestures and the words that accompany them, we see an indication of the identity
that you assume today in the Church. From now on, you will be even more closely and
intimately linked to the See of Peter: the titles and deaconries of the churches of
Rome will remind you of the bond that joins you, as members by a very special title,
to this Church of Rome, which presides in universal charity. Particularly through
the work you do for the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, you will be my valued co-workers,
first and foremost in my apostolic ministry for the fullness of catholicity, as Pastor
of the whole flock of Christ and prime guarantor of its doctrine, discipline and morals. Dear
friends, let us praise the Lord, who “with manifold gifts does not cease to enrich
his Church spread throughout the world” (Oration), and reinvigorates her in the perennial
youth that he has bestowed upon her. To him we entrust the new ecclesial service
of these our esteemed and venerable Brothers, that they may bear courageous witness
to Christ, with a lively growing faith and unceasing sacrificial love. Amen.