New cardinals, a visit to the tomb of the first resigning pope and a general assembly of papal electors: the Vatican is experiencing several major events these days – and the rumor mill is bubbling.
Pope Francis appointed 20 new cardinals over the weekend and prayed at the grave of the pope who became the first pope in church history to voluntarily resign. On Sunday he flew by helicopter to the Italian city of L’Aquila, where he met relatives of victims of the deadly 2009 earthquake and prayed at the tomb of Celestine V in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio. With these two appointments, the pope fueled rumors about a possible resignation right before a cardinal assembly on Monday and Tuesday. Vatican observers currently consider such a step to be very unlikely.
In 1294, Pope Celestine V was the first pope to resign from office voluntarily and during his lifetime. Also Pope Benedict XVI. prayed at this grave a few years before his resignation in 2013. Benedict’s visit and the filing of his badge of office at the tomb of Celestine V were later interpreted as a silent announcement of his resignation.
Pope does not continue selection tradition
With the appointment of 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis has at least had a noticeable impact on the future of the Catholic Church. 16 of them are allowed to vote for a new head of the Catholic Church in a conclave, i.e. a papal election, because they have not yet exceeded the prescribed age limit of 80 years. It was noticeable that the Pope did not take into account numerous ministers from dioceses who traditionally become cardinals at some point. Instead, he also called men from East Timor, Singapore and Mongolia. Germans were not appointed new cardinals on Saturday.
It was Francis’ eighth cardinal creation as pope, as the jargon calls it. In the body of 226 cardinals, 132 of them have the right to vote in the conclave. Francis has now appointed most of them proportionately. The rest come from the pontificates of Benedict XVI. and John Paul II.
Also present at the ceremony on Saturday afternoon in St. Peter’s Basilica were German Cardinals Reinhard Marx (Archbishop of Munich and Freising) and the controversial Archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Woelki. The presence of the Italian cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who is currently on trial in the Vatican for a financial scandal involving the purchase of a luxury property that went wrong, caused astonishment. Becciu said in advance that Francis had invited him to the ceremony and wanted to give him back his cardinal dignity, which he had given up in the wake of the scandal.
Meeting behind closed doors from Monday
The new cardinals, together with Francis, visited Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI after the church celebration. in his Vatican residence Mater Ecclesiae. The two popes prayed with the new cardinals, the Holy See said.
Observers are now looking forward to Monday and Tuesday, when around 200 cardinals and high church officials will meet behind closed doors in the Vatican. Officially, Pope Francis wants to present the new Vatican constitution “Praedicate Gospel” (Preach the Gospel). It is one of the Argentine’s major reform projects, which was worked out over several years, reorganizing the authorities of the Holy See and giving women the opportunity to lead them.
For Francis it is an opportunity to hear the opinions of cardinals from all over the world on this reform. Observers suspect that other topics could also come up. The somewhat strange constellation of dates from the cardinal appointment at an unusual date in the hot summer month of August, a symbolic visit to the grave of the first resigned pope in L’Aquila and a general assembly of cardinals – almost like a conclave – caused rumors in advance about a possible one upcoming resignation of Francis’.
Source: Stern
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