By Cian Molloy - 10 October, 2016
The Church’s ‘Year of Mercy’ will conclude with the creation of 17 new cardinals, whose names were announced by Pope Francis on Sunday 9 October.
Six of those receiving red hats on Saturday 19 November belong to dioceses that have never had cardinals before. Five of the new cardinals are Europeans and three are from the United States.
The first of the 17 to be named was Archbishop Mario Zenari, who the Pope said “will remain apostolic nuncio to the beloved and martyred Syria.”
The last to be named was a Franciscan priest who came close to martyrdom himself: Fr Ernest Simoni, who serves in the Archdiocese of Shkodrë-Pult in Albania. When Pope Francis heard his testimony two years ago, the pope was moved to tears.
Ordained in 1956, at a time when religion was banned by the Albanian Communist Party, Fr Simoni was arrested while celebrating Mass on Christmas Eve 1962 and sentenced to death by firing squad. The sentence was commuted, but he was then held in solitary confinement and tortured in an unsuccessful bid to get him to denounce the Church. He was then sentenced to penal labour, working for 18 years in a mine and then ten years clearing sewage canals.
Notably, the appointments will increase American representation in the College of Cardinals, with three of ‘the new boys’ coming from the United States: Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago, Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis and Bishop Kevin Farrell, who is prefect of the new Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which was established by the pope this August.
In addition to Zenari and Simoni, there are three other Europeans on the list: Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, Archbishop Jozef De Kesel of Malines-Brussels and Retired Archbishop Renato Corti of Novara in Italy.
Simoni, Corti and two other nominees, retired Archbishops Anthony Soter Fernandez of Kuala Lumpur and Sebastian Koto Khoarai of Mohale’s Hoek, Lesotho, are too old to be cardinal electors should a conclave be called to elect a successor to Pope Francis.
The other appointees are from dioceses that have never had a cardinal before: Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui in the Central African Republic, Archbishop Patrick D’Rozario of Dhaka in Bangladesh, Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardozo of Mérida in Venezuela and Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes of Tlalnepantla de Baz in Mexico. Bishop Maurice Piat of Port Louis in Mauritius and Archbishop John Ribat of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea come from island nations that have never before had a cardinal.
Archbishop Sergio da Rocha of Brasilia will be the second Brazilian church leader from that archdiocese to receive a red hat.
