Pope urges new cardinals to opt for God’s kingdom of truth, love, service

November 26, 2012 - Pope Benedict XVI has urged the Catholic Church’s six new cardinals to always give priority to God and His will over the interests of the world and its powers. He reminded them that they had the demanding responsibility of making God's Kingdom known in the world - not a kingdom of political power obtained through weapons and violence, but a kingdom of truth, love and service. The Pope’s exhortation came on Sunday’s feast of Christ the King as he concelebrated Mass with the new cardinals on Sunday in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He created the cardinals the previous day, Saturday, at a ceremony called the consistory. Commenting on John’s Gospel narration of Jesus’ dialogue with Pontius Pilate before his passion and death, the Pope in his homily reminded the cardinals that Jesus’ rule “is in no way to be confused with a political reign of and from this world. “He wishes to accomplish the Father’s will to the end, and to establish his kingdom not by armed conflict, but by the apparent weakness of life-giving love.” “That is why, faced with a defenceless, weak and humiliated man, as Jesus was, a man of power like Pilate is taken aback because he hears of a kingdom and servants and not one of domination and force.” “To be like Jesus, then, means not letting ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but bringing into the world the light of truth and God's love,” Pope Benedict added. Three of the six news cardinals are from Asia – Indian Major Archbishop Mar Baselios Cleemis of Trivandrum, the head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Filipino Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila and Lebanese Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai of the Maronite Catholic Church.
After concelebrating Mass with the new cardinals, the Pope also prayed the traditional Sunday midday ‘Angelus’ prayer with the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. Before the prayer, he spoke about God's kingdom and the Church’s role in making it present in the world. He noted that this kingdom first manifests itself in the person of Christ, who established it through his death on the cross and his resurrection. The Pope explained that all Christians are called to “prolong God’s saving work by converting ourselves to the Gospel, by placing ourselves with conviction in the footsteps of that King who came not to be served but to serve and to bear witness to the truth.” In this perspective he invited everyone to pray for the six new cardinals that I created on Saturday, that the Holy Spirit may strengthen them in faith and charity and fill them with his gifts, so that they may live their new responsibilities as a further commitment to Christ and his kingdom.