(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI created six new Cardinals on Saturday in an Ordinary
Public Consistory for the purpose here at the Vatican. The six new “Princes of the
Church” are: Archbishop James M. Harvey, Prefect of the Papal Household; His Beatitude,
Bechara Boutros Raï, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch in Lebanon; His Beatitude, Baselios
Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum in India and head of the Syro-Malankara
Church; Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria; Archbishop Ruben Salazar
Gomez of Bogotá, Colombia; and Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila in the Philippines.
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. Pope Benedict XVI took the universality
of the Church as the theme of his allocution to the participants in the Consistory,
focusing the meaning of the word, “Catholic” – “A word,” he said, “which indicates
an essential feature of the Church and her mission.” Below, please find the full text
of the Holy Father's allocution.
“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. “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 a
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.