Cardinal distribution by Country

Barring the intervention of the Grim Reaper, the following is based on how the College of Cardinal Electors will look on the eve of the consistory in February.

Note is given of cardinals in a country who have passed the 79 year mark. If they are an “Ordinary” the successor is given IF he is not yet a cardinal; see for example below: Cardinal Tettamanzi was replaced by Cardinal Scola.

If a prelate is thought likely to be elevated at the First Franciscan Consistory, his name is highlighted in red; if he might be elevated but there is a doubt, then green is used

Western Europe (45 Electors/45 non-Electors)

ITALY: 25 Electors; 22 non-Electors

Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia (69) was appointed to Turin on October 11, 2010, in succession to Severino Cardinal Poletto who turned 80 on March 18.

Archbishop Francesco Moraglia (60) was appointed Patriarch of Venice on January 31, 2010, when Cardinal Scola was translated to Milan.

(Note: These appointments would only temporarily increase the Italian presence in the College of Cardinal Electors: Cardinal Tettamanzi will be 80 on March 14, 2014: Emeritus, Milan.

Cardinal Sardi will be 80 on September 1, 2014: Emeritus, Curia, Vice-Chamberlain.)

SPAIN: 5 Electors; 5 non-Electors

Cardinal Amigo Vallejo OFM will be 80 on August 23, 2014: Emeritus, Seville.

Juan José Asenjo Pelegrina (68), was appointed Coadjutor on November 13, 2008, and succeeded on November 5, 2009.

(Only two Archbishops of Seville were not created cardinal. Both died shortly after appointment: Archbishop Salvador Castellote y Pinazo was appointed on December 6, 1906, and died just over a fortnight later, on December 23 in his 61^st year; Archbishop Bienvenido Monzón y Martín was appointed on March 27, 1885 and died just under five months later, on August 10 in his 65^th year.)

GERMANY: 4 Electors; 5 non-Electors

NOTE: One of the non-Electors is Joachim Cardinal Meisner, 80 on Christmas Day (coming, that is 2013). He is still active as Metropolitan Archbishop of Cologne, which is most definitely a “Red Hat” See. So when his successor IS named, he will come into the reckoning.

Cardinal Cordes wll be 80 on September 5: Emeritus, Curia (“Cor Unum”)

FRANCE 4 Electors; 4 non-Electors

SWITZERLAND: 1 Elector; 3 non-Electors

PORTUGAL: 2 Elector; 1 non-Elector

NOTE: Patriarch Manuel José Macário do Nascimento Clemente (65) was appointed Patriarch of Lisbon on May 18, 2013. Patriarch José da Cruz Cardinal Policarpo will not be 80 until February 26, 2016.

IRELAND: 1 Elector; 1 non-Electors

NETHERLANDS: 1 Elector; 1 non-Elector

GREAT BRITAIN: 1 Elector; 1 non-Elector

NOTE: the Elector is Keith Patrick Cardinal O’Brien who was 75 on March 17 this year. There is some question as to whether he will resign the cardinalate at the next consistory.

Vincent Gerard Nichols (67) was appointed Archbishop of Westminster on April 3, 2009, in succession to Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor who turned 80 on August 24, 2012. Whilst it is likely that he would never have received a Red Hat under Benedict, it is unlikkely that Pope Francis willbe as severe in his judgement, although Cardinal Ouelett is unlikely to have changed his views. (Cardinal Ouelett, as Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, is required to brief the Pope BUT the choices are entirely a matter for the Pope. So, if, for example, Cardinal Ouelett says that historically the Metrpolitan Archbishop of Westminster is created cardinal at the first opportunity but your predecessor held this view..." Pope Francis could say "well I don't."

AUSTRIA: 1 Elector

BELGIUM: 1 non-Elector

André-Joseph Léonard (73), Military Ordinary of Belgium was translated on February 27, 2010, as Archbishop and Metropolitan to Mechelen–Brussel in succession to Cardinal Godfried Danneels who turned 80 on June 4, last.

MALTA: 1 non-Elector

(Note: Prosper Cardinal Grech OSA (87) gave the final exhortation at the conclave in March. This was the first ever to be published.)

Eastern Europe (10/10)

POLAND: 4 Electors; 2 non-Electors

NOTE: Mgr Józef Kowalczyk (75), Archbishop of Gniezno, is a distinguished former Apostolic Nuncio. Gniezno is the historic Primatial See of Poland but I cannot see His Excellency being considered.

CZECH REPUBLIC: 1 Elector; 1 non-Elector

HUNGARY: 1 Elector; 1 non-Elector

SLOVAKIA: 2 non-Electors

UKRAINE: 2 non-Electors

NB:

(1) The Greek Catholic Church of the Ukraine is by far and away the largest of the Eastern Rite Churches in full communion with Rome. Many believe that it is long past time it should have been created a Patriarchate.

(2) Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (43) was elected to Kyiv–Halyč of the Ukrainians on 23 March, 2011, and this was confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI two days later, March 25, 2011 and upon receipt of that confirmation assumed office as Metropolitan Archbishop of Kyiv (Kiev) of the Ukraines. Born on May 5, 1970, as I write (November 3, 2013) is only 43 years old. His predecessor having attained his 80^th birthday on February 26 last he SHOULD be considered a certainty for inclusion in the forthcoming list of new cardinals. But will his age be held against him?

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: 1 Elector

CROATIA: 1 Elector

LITHUANIA: 1 Elector

SLOVENIA: 1 Elector

ROMANIA: 1 non-Elector

North America (16/10)

CANADA: 3 Electors

Note: Montreal first became a Red Hat See with Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger’s elevation in 1953, three years after his appointment. But, his successor, Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte, waited 20 years for his cardinal’s hat. And his successor, being passed over in one consistory. So it is by no means certain that Archbishop Christian Lépine (62), appointed and installed on March 20, 2012, will be created cardinal at this consistory.

UNITED STATES: 11 Electors; 8 non-Electors

Baltimore: Archbishop William Edward Lori (62) appointed March 20, 2012, in succession to Edwin Frederick Cardinal O’Brien (74) who was appointed Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (August 29, 2011, as Pro-Grand). Cardinal O’Brien had been appointed in succession to William Henry Cardinal Keeler, now aged 82 years.

Detroit: First became a Red Hat See with Edward Aloysius Cardinal Mooney’s elevation in 1946, nine years after his appointment. Archbishop Allen Henry Vigneron (65) was appointed on January 5, 2009 on the retiral of Adam Joseph Cardinal Maida. Mgr Vigneron has been passed over at four consistories since Cardinal Maida turned 80.  

Los Angeles: Archbishop José Horacio Gómez Velasco (62 on Boxing Day) succeeded on March 1, 2011 and has been passed over in 2 consistories under the Benedictine policy. Cardinal Mahony will remain an elector until February 27, 2016. However, Los Angeles is the biggest (arch)diocese in the USA AND it has a massive Latino population and that population nationally is grossly underrepresented in the hierarchy and in the Sacred College.

Philadelphia: Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput, OFM Cap (69) was appointed on July 19, 2011, to succeed Justin Francis Cardinal Rigali. His Eminence will be 80 on April 19, 2015.

MEXICO: 2 Electors; 2 non-Electors

NB: Mexico has 18 Metropolitan Archbishops.

Central America (3/1)

CUBA: 1 Elector

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 1 Elector

HONDURAS: 1 Elector

NICARAGUA: 1 non-Elector

South America (9/12)

BRAZIL: 4 Electors; 5 non-Electors

NB: Brazil has 44 Metropolitan Archdioceses

São Salvador da Bahia first became a Red Hat See with Augusto Álvaro Cardinal da Silva’s elevation in 1953. Thereafter, the new Archbishop has been created cardinal at the first opportunity. Archbishop Murilo Sebastião Ramos Krieger (70) was appointed January 12, 2011, in succession to Geraldo Majella Cardinal Agnelo who has just turned 80, on October 19.

São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro first became a Red Hay See with Joaquim Cardinal Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti’s elevation in 1905, eight years after his appointment. The Cistercian, Archbishop Orani João Tempesta (63), was appointed on February 27, 2009, in succession to Eusébio Oscar Cardinal Scheid who turned 80 on December 8 last.

Belo HorizonteL last two Archbishops created cardinal. Archbishop Walmor Oliveira de Azevedo (59) was appointed on January 28, 2004, in succession to Serafim Cardinal Fernandes de Araújo, now 89.

Brasilia: Last two Archbishops were created, though not immediately, cardinal. Archbishop Sérgio da Rocha (54) was appointed on August 6, 2011.

ARGENTINA:  1 Elector; 2 non-Electors

NB: Argentina has 13 Metropolitan Archbishops.

COLOMBIA:  1 Electors; 2 non-Electors

CHILE:  0 Electros; 2 non-Electors

Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello (72 on January 7) was appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Chile on December 15, 2010. His predecessor, Francisco Javier Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa, P. Schönstatt, a member of the Council of Cardinals, turned 80 on April 13 last.

BOLIVIA:  1 Elector

ECUADOR: 1non-Elector

Fausto Gabriel Trávez Trávez (72) was appointed Archbishop of Quito on March 11, 2010, in succession to Raúl Eduardo Cardinal Vela Chiriboga who will be 80 on New Year’s Day.

PERU: 1 Elector

VENEZUELA: 1 Elector

South and East Asia (10/6)

INDIA: 5 Electors; 1 non-Elector

PHILIPPINES: 1Electors; 2 non-Electors

NB: The Philippines has 16 Metropolitan Archbishops.

Cebu: Archbishop Jose Serofia Palma (61) appointed October 15, 2010, in succession to Ricardo Jamin Cardinal Vidal who will be 83 by the time of the consistory. 

HONG KONG: 1Electors; 1 non-Elector

INDONESIA: 1Elector

SRI LANKA: 1Elector

VIET NAM: 1Elector

SOUTH KOREA: 1 non-Elector

SRI LANKA: 1 non-Elector

Central and South West Asia (1/2)

LEBANON: 1Elector; 1 non-Elector

IRAQ: 1 non-Elector

Oceania (1/3)

AUSTRALIA:  1 Eector; 2 non-Electors

NEW ZEALAND: 1 non-Elector

Last three Archbishops have been elevated. Archbishop John Atcherley Dew (65) succeeded on March 21, 2005.

Western and Northern Africa (6/2)

NIGERIA: 2 Electors; 1 non-Elector

EGYPT: 1 Elector

GHANA: 1 Elector

GUINEA: 1 Elector

SENEGAL: 1 Elector

CAPE d’IVOIRES: 1 non-Elector

Eastern and Central Africa (4/2)

CONGO (DEM REP): 1 Elector

KENYA: 1 Elector

SUDAN: 1 Elector

TANZANIA: 1 Elector

CAMEROON: 1 non-Elector

UGANDA: 1 non-Elector

Southern Africa (1/2)

SOUTH AFRICA: 1 Elector

ANGOLA: 1 non-Elector

MOZAMBIQUE: 1 non-Elector

Consistory, February 22, 2014, Feast of the Chair of Peter

Today, there are 109 Cardinal Electors. By February 22, 2014, Feast of the Chair of Peter, and on the occasion of Pope Francis’s first consistory for the creation of new cardinals, there will be, barring the intervention of the Grim Reaper, 106. Joachim Cardinal Meisner, still Archbishop of Cologne, will be 80 on Christmas Day. Raúl Eduardo Cardinal Vela Chiriboga, Archbishop Emeritus of Quito, will follow suit on New Year’s Day. Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops, loses his rights as a Cardinal Elector on January 30. It will be remembered that Cardinal Re as Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto and senior Cardinal Bishop present at the recent conclave, acted as Pro-Dean and so had the responsibility of asking His Eminence Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio SJ if he accepted his canonically valid election.

Thus under the rules currently in force, Pope Francis will have 14 red birettas to confer on new Cardinal Electors.

Unless Pope Francis decides otherwise, there are 21 positions within the Roman Curia and related institutions which are reserved to cardinals or to archbishops who will be created cardinal at the first opportunity (although Pope Benedict himself ignored this at his mini-consistory of last November when he did not create cardinal Archbishops Müller and Bruguès). These are:

The Secretary of the Secretariat of State;

The Prefects of the nine Congregations;

The heads of two of the three Tribunals, the Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary and the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura;

The Presidents of the: Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See; Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See; the Governatorate of Vatican City State, who is also President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State;

The Librarian of the Vatican Library and Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives (now a combined post);

The Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and;

The Archpriests of the Four Patriarchal Basilicas: St John Lateran (which Archpriest is also the Pope’s Cardinal Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome); St Mary Major; St Paul’s Outside the Walls, and; St Peter’s.

Before speculating on who will be on the list we must also remember that Pope Benedict adopted the attitude that in general a prelate appointed to a position which traditionally merited the award of a Red Hat would have to wait until the person he succeeded ceased by reason of age or demise to enjoy the rights of a Cardinal Elector. But it must also be borne in mind that this was his policy, it is nowhere enshrined in canon law. Benedict himself applied it inconsistently in the metropolitan archdioceses and he did not apply it where the major departments of the Roman Curia were concerned (see the appointments of Archbishops: Fernando Filoni, Oriental Churches, 2007; Angelo Amato, Causes of Saints, 2008;  Joã Bráz de Aviz, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 2011; Fernando Filoni, Evangelization of Peoples, 2011). Only time, and it may be a short time, will tell how Pope Francis intends to proceed.

Since the first consistory of the new millennium, that of February 21, 2001, it has been the practice that when a list of cardinals-designate is issued, at the top of the list are named those prelates destined for service in the Roman Curia. To be named Number 1 on the list is a signal honour. To that prelate falls the privilege of addressing the Holy Father in behalf of all the new cardinals at the public consistory, nowadays invariably in St Peter's. On this occasion, Number 1 on the list will be Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Pro-Secretary of State (although they seem not to have officially adopted this correct designation in the Vatican) since October 15. This is a rare occurrence. I am aware of it having happened only twice before (if we ignore Domenico Tardini whose nomination was announced on the eve of Good Pope John's first consistory in 1958; also Cardinal Tardini was not named as Number 1, that honour went to Cardinal Montini, a personal friend of Good Pope John as well as being a former sostituto, which outranks a former equivalent to the present day Secretary for Relations with States).

In July of 1903, as Pope Leo XIII lay dying, Mgr Volpini, Secretary of the Sacred College of Cardinals and who should therefore have acted as Secretary at the upcoming conclave, suddenly died. The Anglo-Spanish Archbishop Rafael Merry del Val, President of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, was elected by the cardinals to act as Secretary to the Conclave. Such was the favourable impression that Pope Pius X formed of him that he asked him to act in an interim capacity, in effect as Pro-Secretary of State without seemingly appointing him formally as such. He headed the list of two at Pope Pius's first consistory, on November 9, 1903 (the other was Giuseppe Callegari, Bishop of Padua).

Archbishop Angelo Sodano, Secretary for Relations with States, was named Pro-Secretary of State on December 1, 1990. He was created cardinal on June 28, 1991, and was confirmed as Cardinal Secretary of State on the following day.

Obviously, there is no way of knowing how the work of the Papal G8 will affect the way in which Red Hats are distributed within the Roman Curia in the future,  but it is doubtful if it will impinge on this first Franciscan consistory. What may affect the numbers, if not the names, of those honoured at this is the fact that 36 of the 106 Cardinal Electors who will gather round His Holiness in February are cardinals in curia, 9 of them Emeriti heads of dicasteries, 6 of whom will cease to be Cardinal Electors before the end of 2014.

So who will definitely be joining Archbishop Parolin? Three current prelates of the Roman Curia, under the current rules and custom and practice, are certainties. They are:

Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller (65, birthday on Hogmanay; German) appointed on July 2, 2012, by Papa Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, President of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, of the International Theological Commission, and of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Pope Francis has already confirmed him in place and demonstrated his great confidence in him by having him write an 8,000 plus word article for L’Osservatore Romano explaining the Catholic Church’s position on the divorced and remarried, with especial reference to the teaching in relation to admission to the Eucharist.

Archbishop Beniamino Stella (72), Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. Appointed by Pope Francis, he was formerly an Apostolic Nuncio and most recently served as President of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the Academia.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès OP (70 on November 22 ), Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and Librarian of the Vatican Library. He was appointed on June 26, 2012, by Papa Ratzinger. (Going back to 1700, only 4 prelates appointed to head the Secret Archives were not yet Cardinals. All were created Cardinal at the next consistory.)

In addition, they will be joined by Archbishop Lorenzzo Baldisseri (73), Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops. By placing his own now discarded red zucchetto (skullcap) upon Mgr Baldisseri’s head as he knelt to pay homage towards the end of the conclave, to which the good Monsignor had acted as Secretary, Pope Francis indicated his intention to create him cardinal at his first consistory. That His Holiness had not had second thoughts — there was some talk afterwards that he hadn’t fully appreciated what he had done — was reinforced not so much when he appointed him as Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, but more when he appointed him in such a way as to emphasise that the Synod was to become core to the way he intended to govern the Universal Church.

One other prelate must be rated almost definitely certain to join them. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia (68) has been President of the Pontifical Council for the Family since June 26, 2012. That Pope Francis has chosen “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization” as the theme for the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops next year would strongly suggest that Mgr Paglia will be on the list.

(Two other heads of second tier dicasteries would in theory have a chance of being elevated but at the moment must be rated doubtful. These are, firstly, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski (64, Polish), President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers since April 18, 2009, and, secondly, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella (62), President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization since June 30, 2010. The latter is the more problematic. It would seem to me logical that especially bearing in mind what is said above in relation to Archbishop Paglia, the Papal G8 must be considering merging the Council for New Evangelization with that for the Family and erecting the joint body as a new Congregation.)

But who will join them from the particular Churches? Absolute certainty would seem to be possible in only two cases, both Latin American.

Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli (66 on November 29) was appointed as his own successor in Buenos Aires by Pope Francis.

Mgr Orani João Tempesta (63), the Cistercian Archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro was appointed by Papa Ratzinger on February 27, 2009, and three consistories have come and gone without his having been elevated because his predecessor, Eusébio Oscar Cardinal Scheid, was still a Cardinal Elector. (Although why he was not elevated at the mini-consistory in November last is a puzzle as Cardinal Scheid was to celebrate his 80^th birthday a mere fortnight after it was held.)

After this it can only be guesswork. Of what degree or quality of inspiration is anyone's guess. There can be little doubt that Pope Francis intends to tackle the imbalance in the Sacred College. But how and when?

In Italy, two of the nine Red Hat Sees are currently headed by an Archbishop. Mgr Cesare Nosiglia (69) was appointed Archbishop of Turin on October 11, 2010, and has also been excluded from three consistories under Papa Ratzinger’s policy on succession. However, his predecessor, Severino Cardinal Poletto, turned 80 on March 18 last.

Archbishop Francesco Moraglia was appointed Patriarch of Venice on January 31, 2012, after Angelo Cardinal Scola was translated to Milan (June 28, 2011).

I personally cannot see Pope Francis omitting these two prelates, especially the latter (apart from anything else, three 20th Century Popes were elected from Venice: Pius X, John XXIII and John Paul I). His Holiness may be Argentinian but he is also an ethnic Italian. And Italy, and not just Rome, is still of immense importance to the church: culturally, spiritually and symbolically. Any Italian emigrant will tell you so!

I will return to this after suitable further cogitation. And maybe a pie and pint for lunch.

Archbishop Leo Cushley's Installation

(A slightly edited version of this was published in The Scottish Catholic Observer on September 27, 2013.)

Who could deny that the episcopal ordination and installation of the second most important out of the two metropolitan archbishops in a wee Protestant, European country with a statistically almost insignificant Catholic population — Saint Andrews and Edinburgh circa 116,000 Catholics, Glasgow circa 225,000 Catholics; total population of Scotland in excess of 5,000,000 — is wholly insignificant in the greater scheme of Catholic things?

Well, me actually.

Two days before Mgr Leo Cushley formally took up his responsibilities, an interview given by his former most important boss gave rise to an excess of joy among those who hate the Catholic Church — from the New York Times to the Pink News via CNN and the National Catholic Reporter; I can’t tell you about The Tablet, I never read it now that it has ceased to be a Catholic magazine, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Our new Holiness, Pope Francis, they have proclaimed, has declared that homosexuality, abortion, artificial insemination, embryonic stem cell research, divorce and remarriage, marriage of priests — they haven’t, at least not yet, included marriage of priests to each other — ordination of women and anything and everything else you care to add, no matter how apparently absurd never mind outrageous, is now OK. That which had been taught by Pope Benedict XVI and his 264 predecessors and the man to whom they owe their lineage’s and teachings’ very existence, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary, the Christ, are oot the windae.

Halelujah. Or not, as the case may be.

For those of us now upset, confused, fearful and full of doubt  in face of this apparent massive, papal U-turn it would seem prudent that we yet again follow Para Handy’s sage advice: Let us pause and consider.

Is it at all likely that this could be true?

Fortunately, all we need do is turn to Archbishop Leo’s words as the Mass of Episcopal Consecration drew to its close on Saturday. Because he worked so closely with Pope Francis, Mgr Leo had been granted the unusual privilege for a newly appointed bishop or archbishop to be called in for a chat with His Holiness. He recalled: “One of the things he communicated then and in the coming days — Mgr Leo routinely saw him in the course of his normal duties (HMcL) — was the idea that I should be merciful in my ministry here.

“Merciful.  This has already become a key word in his pontificate, and it’s an idea that comes to him from the Gospels but filtered through his thinking about a quotation that he likes from the Venerable Bede, the famous English historian. The Pope told me to look up the Office of Readings for the day and to find his motto, the words “miserando atque eligendo”, where Christ mercifully looks upon Matthew and chooses him.

“But he explained that being merciful doesn’t mean being soft. It means being gentle but also firm at the same time. This is what the Pope asked me to be for all of you. It is also Pope Francis’s proposal for the way we priests ought to be with each other: firmly resolved to be merciful, to forgive, to be humble, to re-build, to dialogue.

“The Holy Father proposed this in his own gentle and fraternal way, but also with the strength of loving conviction and experience.”

It is worth, I think, pointing out that Pope Francis when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires was loath to grant interviews with the Press. It may well be either he knew of, or, had learned from those who knew of, the fact that in February of 1959, Good Pope John released for publication part of the text of a speech that Pope Pius XI had intended to deliver to his cardinals twenty years earlier, on 11 February 1939, the day after he died. It read in part:

“You know how badly the Pope’s words are treated. People read our allocutions or addresses — not only in Italy — in order to falsify their meaning, sometimes inventing altogether and attributing to us the most utter nonsense and absurdities. Recent and past history are so perverted in a certain press that it is said that there is no persecution in Germany, and this denial is accompanied by false and calumnious allegations of mixing in politics, just as Nero’s persecution used the charge of setting fire to Rome.

“Take care, dearest brothers in Christ, and never forget that there are observers and tale-bearers (call them “spies” and you will be nearer the truth) who will listen to you in order to denounce you, having understood nothing of the matter in hand or got it all wrong. They have in their favour – one must remember how Our Lord thought of His executioners – only the good sovereign excuse of ignorance.”

This, according to some controversial, interview granted by Pope Francis was conducted by Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica on behalf of several Jesuit journals from across the world. As always, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was paying his debts. As Pope, canonically he is no longer “SJ” but at heart he is.

And that word “canonically” and that word “heart” lead us directly to the pastoral, evangelical impulse behind Papa Bergoglio’s advice to Archbishop Leo (as revealed at his consecration/induction) and to the Catholic Church more generally (as revealed in his interview).

One of the great teachers of Canon Law in the Twentieth Century at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome was Servant of God Fr Felice Maria Cappello SJ, Confessor and Canonist. Professor at the Greg 1920-1959, he daily heard the confessions of brother Jesuits, secular priests, bishops, archbishops and cardinals as well as of the laity of all walks of life at the nearby Church of Saint Ignatius until shortly before his death on March 25, 1962.

Dr Edward Peters, a lay American canon lawyer, has asked the followers of his Blog to invoke Fr Cappello’s intercession for the recovery of his son, Thomas Peters, who was recently very seriously injured in a swimming accident. He makes note of the good confessor’s advice to the student priests whom he taught: “Principles are principles, and they remain firm and are always to be defended. But all consciences are not the same. In applying principles to consciences, we must do it with great prudence, much common sense, and much goodness. In your opinions and decisions never be severe. The Lord does not want that. Be always just, but never severe. Give the solution that offers the soul some room in which to breathe.”

Never be severe, always be merciful! Exactly what Pope Francis has said to Archbishop Leo and to his brother bishops and fellow priests is, then, really nothing new. Indeed, William Shakespeare said it long ago in The Merchant of Venice (Act IV, Scene1):

The quality of mercy is not strained

It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven

Upon the place beneath

It is twice blessed:

It blesseth him that gives and him that receives.

If you take the time and go to the trouble of reading Pope Francis’s interview, this is the key to understanding what he is all about: be merciful. Or, since there is nothing new under the Roman sun, as Cardinal Winning always put it: Hate the sin; but love the sinner! 

Annulment and Cardinal Heard

On Friday, January 22, 2010, I published a post on Cardinal Heard which was simply an explanation of how I had come to do a wee bit of research into the life of the only Oxford Rowing, or any other, Blue to be admitted to the Sacred College. Sadly, I did not follow it up with other extracts from my essay. This morning, reading an interesting post on Fr Ray Blake’s Blog “A Greek Practice” (http://marymagdalen.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-greek-practice.html)  brought to mind how Fr Theo Heard, assistant priest of Most Holy Trinity, Dockhead, Bermondsey, Diocese of Southwark, came to be called to Rome to replace Mgr John Prior on the Sacred Roman Rota. And it was all to do with one of the most astonishing annulment cases heard by the Rota in the Twentieth Century. Indeed, the details foxed the readers of The Times.

Oxford Blue, Roman Purple

An auditor

Almost inevitably, a man — Rev Fr Dr William Theodore Heard MA (Oxon), PhD, DD, JCD (all the Greg, all summa cum laude) — could not for long escape the call to Rome. Although possessed of such manifest talents, for a priest happy and fulfilled in his lot, serving in a parish and among people whom he clearly loved, and happily doing the job for which he had been ordained, it was perhaps not so much a “call”, more of an unwanted summons. Either way, in Rome, on September 30, 1927, Pope Pius XI named him a domestic prelate with the title and style of the Right Reverend Monsignor and on the following day, October 1, 1927, appointed him as an uditore di Rota, an auditor, that is judge, of the Sacred Roman Rota Appeals Tribunal.

The vacancy on the Tribunal for an Enlish language auditor had come about as the result of the death in Darlington after a long illness of Mgr John Prior, the English Dean of the Sacred Roman Rota, a former vice-Rector of the Beda College, Rome (who had worked with Mgr, later Cardinal, Merry del Val on preparing the Bull Apostilicae Curae for Pope Leo XIII in which Anglican orders were decreed to be “absolutely null and utterly void”). The Church authorities in Rome, according to Cardinal Heard’s obituarist, “looked around for some distinguished jurist from the British Empire” to replace Mgr Prior. However, language alone would not have been the only consideration. And, after appointment, because of the way that judges are allotted cases there could have been no question of his being responsible solely, or even mainly, with appeals from the English-speaking world.

The Rota’s working language, of course, was Latin, but witness statements and evidence might even in those days have been given or presented originally in other languages. Mgr Heard was fluent in English, obviously, Latin, Italian and French. It was the recollection of Cardinal Winning (who inspired my essay), who knew Cardinal Heard well, that there were also another couple of languages he would have been able to get by in, but he was not sure which. Post-Vatican II, or to be more precise post-1967, dioceses were allowed to present documents to the Vatican in the vernacular. Cardinal Heard was a member of the commission of three cardinals appointed by Pope Paul VI, in response to the earnest entreaties of the Council Fathers, to investigate the workings of the curia and to propose reforms which would make the Vatican more accessible to, and more responsive to, the world-wide, universal Church. His Eminence was a party to this recommendation on the use of the vernacular. However, in 1927, when he was appointed to the Rota, although auditors and advocates conducted their business in Latin, lay witnesses were not required to be fluent in its use.

Mgr Heard was well known within the Catholic Church in England at that time for three reasons. Many younger priests knew him as a result of his having acted as Confessor to the students of the Venerabile; he would also have been known within the Diocese of Southwark and further afield through his work on the Diocesan Court; and of course he would have stood out because of his triple doctorates in canon law, divinity and philosophy. And that Rowing Blue, making it four. The Southwark Diocesan Court, with such expertise at its disposal in the body of one person, must have been the envy of every other Bishop in the country. But that notwithstanding, how did he come to the notice of the Vatican authorities? Obviously the English hierarchy would have been eager to advance the cause of one of their own (albeit he was a proud Scotsman) when Mgr Prior died and a vacancy arose in the Rota, but there was more to it than that.

The Times of Monday, November 15, 1926, in its “Telegrams in brief” column on page 13 carried a small item which was to precipitate a great storm of controversy. And the Rev Fr Dr William Theodore Heard, Officialis of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Southwark, was right in the eye of that storm. The item read:

“Reuter’s Rome correspondent says that the Sacred Roman Rota has confirmed the decree of the Diocesan Court of Southwark annulling the marriage of the Duke of Marlborough with Miss Consuela Vanderbilt.”

On the following day, Tuesday, November 16, on page 14, The Times carried a report from Reuters, New York, under the banner headline “U.S. BISHOP’S CRITICISM OF ANNULMENT” which read:

“New York, Nov.15. The report that the Sacred Roman Rota had confirmed the decree of the Diocesan Court of Southwark annulling the Duke of Marlborough’s first marriage to Miss Consuela Vanderbilt was described as ‘amazing and incredible’ by Bishop Manning in the course of a sermon yesterday.

Speaking as the Bishop of the diocese in which the marriage originally took place, Dr Manning declared that the action of the Roman Catholic Church in this case was most serious, and likely to have far-reaching consequences. The Bishop added: ‘One of the ways in which our witness for Christ is called for to-day is in regard to the sacredness and permanence of marriage.’

Dr Manning, who is Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of New York, is one of the leading High Churchmen of the Episcopal denomination, and is well known for his leaning towards Rome. Reuter”

On Friday, November 26, The Times reported further on Bishop Manning’s fury. From Reuters’s New York bureau:

“In the course of a Thanksgiving sermon in the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, Bishop Manning, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of New York, again criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its annulment of the Marlborough-Vanderbilt marriage as an ‘unwarranted intrusion and impertinence’.”

If the working man on the upper deck of the Clapham omnibus had little or nothing to say on the matter, the readers of The Times had plenty. Over the weeks following the announcement of the confirmation by the Sacred Roman Rota of the decree of nullity, To the Editor of The Times became an oft-used phrase as pen was put furiously to paper.

Naturally enough, while the Episcopalians were on the one hand incandescent with rage at Roman interference in an Anglican marriage, or, more correctly, an American Protestant Episcopalian one, the Catholics on the other were quite content that the Church had done no wrong. After all, firstly, it was hardly the Church’s fault that it had never been a canonically valid marriage in the first place and, secondly, the Church only became involved when one of the parties to the marriage contract wished to convert to Rome and so sought to regularise her position. It could be argued that the Church in fact paid the American Protestant Episcopalian hierarchy a compliment by treating the matter as if the original marriage ceremony had been carried out by a cleric in good standing with Rome, one whose claim to holy orders was unimpeachable. This almost certainly would not have happened had the case come before the Rota only a few years earlier.

It is clear that the Rota were suitably impressed by Fr Heard’s handling of the whole matter. Even more lustre must have been added to his reputation with both his English superiors and Rome when the following appeared on page 15 of The Times dated February 2, 1927:

The Duke of Marlborough

The Duke of Marlborough was received into the Roman Catholic Church in the chapel of Archbishop’s House Westminster by the Reverend CC Martindale SJ at noon yesterday. The Duchess of Marlborough, the Countess of Abington, Lady Gwendeline Spencer-Churchill, and Lord Lovat were present. Cardinal Bourne received the Duke and Duchess immediately afterwards and gave them his blessing.

And so it was that Mgr Heard came to take up residence once more in the Venerabile, although only temporarily until such time as he could establish his own apartment in the city. It is not known whether any students remained in the English College, in whatever capacity, who had been there when, as an ordained postgraduate student, Theodore Heard had functioned as confessor prior to his return to England in 1921. However, even if there were none, he nonetheless received a rousing welcome from both staff and students when the Rector, Mgr Arthur Hindsley, who would later become Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, officially welcomed him back to the College.

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.” 
― Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching

As a former science teacher, I have always had mixed feelings about this particular quote from Tao Teh Chin. Pondering the troubles which have befallen Fr Ray Blake I could come to but only one conclusion: Someone, somewhere — it may, of course, be a lot of people a lot of wheres — wants to shut him up; to undermine him; to subvert all the good work he is doing, firstly in Brighton, and, secondly, in his Blog. And it isn’t Bill Gardner.

No. Brighton and Hove Argus’s disreputable scumbag doesn’t have the brains to produce an attack like this. Somebody put him up to it.

As a Catholic, I have always been confident that a son of the Church, particularly when that son is a priest in good standing, faces being unjustly, unfairly traduced in the public square, then he can be confident of the full support of the leader of the local Church.

Apparently this is NOT the case in the Diocese of Arundel and Brighten where Bishop Kieran Conry is deafeningly silent.

Vatican News: Changes afoot at the Secretariat of State

At the same time as it was officially reported that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Secretary of State Bertone, but putting its execution on hold to October 15, and appointing Mgr Parolin to succeed him, with the same condition applied, he was also reported to have confirmed in their offices the other superiors of the Secretariat of State. These were listed as: Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, sostituto, that is Secretariat of State Substitute for General Affairs; Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States; Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the Papal Household; Msgr. Peter B. Wells, assessor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State (and President of the Financial Security Committee); and, Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary for Relations with States (and a Member of the Financial Security Committee).

Although they were not mentioned in the announcement as their positions, although senior, do not strictly qualify as “superiors”, it may be assumed that Archbishop Luciano Suriani (a classmate of Mgr Pater Magee, President of our Scottish Catholic National (Marriage) Tribunal at the Pontifical Eccesiastcal Academy), Delegate for Pontifical Representations, and, Msgr. José Avelino Bettencourt, Head of Protocol, have also been confirmed in position.

The important point here is that he has included in this group Archbishop Ganswein as if the Papal Household were part of the Secretariat of State. IT ISN’T. At least not yet. This may well indicate that in any rearrangement to come of the Secretariat, the Papal Household will be formally incorporated into the Secretariat, or rather into its remnant based on the First Section. Incorporating the Papal Household into the First Section does not make any sense other than in the context of the First and Second Sections being formally separated.

Visitors to Fr Ray Blake's excellent Blog will be aware that I had reached this conclusion very shortly after the announcements were made. Subsequent to that it was announced that Pope Francis had issued a summons to all the dicastery heads to meet with him. The letter was sent by Archbishop Ganswein, not Cardinal Bertone or Archbishop Becciu.