Do the red thing: Francis and Benedict send a message of loyalty to new cardinals

Last updated on: October 5, 2019 at 3:19 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

Do the red thing: Francis and Benedict send a message of loyalty to new cardinals 2019-10-05T15:19:20-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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I sense a theme here.

From Pope Francis’s homily at the Mass for the creation of new cardinals:

Do we have a lively awareness of this compassion that God feels for us? It is not something optional, or a kind of “evangelical counsel”. No, it is essential. Unless I feel that I am the object of God’s compassion, I cannot understand his love. This is not a reality that can be explained. Either I feel it or I don’t. If I don’t feel it, how can I share it, bear witness to it, bestow it on others? Perhaps, I am not able to do this. Concretely: am I compassionate towards this or that brother or sister, that bishop, that priest? … Or do I constantly tear them down by my attitude of condemnation, of indifference, of looking the other way and actually washing my hands of it?

On this lively awareness also depends, for all of us, the ability to be loyal in our own ministry. This also holds true for you, brother cardinals. The word “compassion” came to my mind right from the moment I started writing my letter to you of 1 September. The readiness of a cardinal to shed his own blood – as signified by the scarlet color of your robes – is secure if it is rooted in this awareness of having been shown compassion and in the ability to show compassion in turn. Otherwise, one cannot be loyal. So many disloyal actions on the part of ecclesiastics are born of the lack of a sense of having been shown compassion, and by the habit of averting one’s gaze, the habit of indifference.

Later, the pope and the 13 new cardinals traveled to meet with Benedict. The Vatican issued the following release:

This evening, Saturday 5 October 2019, at the end of the celebration of the Ordinary Public Consistory, the Holy Father and the new Cardinals went by bus to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery to meet with the Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI.

After a brief greeting, in which he reminded the new cardinals of the value of fidelity to the Pope, Benedict XVI, together with Pope Francis, gave them a blessing.

Afterwards, the thirteen new Cardinals went to the Paul VI Hall and the Apostolic Palace for the Courtesy Visits, while Pope Francis returned to Casa Santa Marta.

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