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Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Gregory, converted this Saturday in the first African American cardinal.
“I am just a person, but at the moment I am a symbolic individual,” Gregory, 72, told AFP.
In June, Wilton Gregory did not hesitate to criticize the American president’s attempt to “intimidate” the crowd through religion. Donald Trump had just posed with a Bible in his hand in front of a church near the White House, the day after the brutal dispersal of anti-racist protesters.
The now cardinal is also known for defending “zero tolerance” against clergy sexual abuse.Especially when he was president of the American Bishops’ Conference in the early 2000s.
In this context of scandals affecting the Church, the Holy See has just published a devastating report on the influential former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington expelled from the priesthood in 2019, after being convicted of sexual abuse of minors and adults. “A sad but important report for the future” with a view to reviewing the bishop selection process, says Wilton Gregory.
Pope Francis has appointed thirteen new cardinals this Saturday, nine of whom will be able to participate in a conclave, in a celebration with only a hundred faithful removed due to the pandemic, and in which the pontiff warned them against “the many types of corruption in priestly life”.
Among the 13 new cardinals are the archbishop of Santiago de Chile, the Spanish Celestino Aós, and the bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de las Casas (Mexico), the Mexican Felipe Arizmedi Esquivel. In his homily, Francis invited the new cardinals “to always be vigilant in order to remain” on God’s path because, he added, “with our feet, with our body we can be with him, but our heart can be far away and lead us astray”. I also regret those who “sometimes, without realizing it, use the Lord to promote themselves”.
Thus, for example, the purple-red of the cardinal robe, which is the color of blood, can be converted, by the worldly spirit, into that of an eminent distinction.
“We think of so many types of corruption in priestly life,” he observed at a time when a financial scandal hit Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prompting Francis to remove him from office and deprive him of his cardinal rights. “Thus, for example, the purple-red of the cardinal robe, which is the color of blood, can be converted, by the worldly spirit, into that of an eminent distinction”, Francis said, adding: “And you will not be the next shepherd if you only listen to the word eminence (as cardinals are called). When they hear only that, they will be astray. ”
Due to the pandemic, only a few relatives and friends of the cardinals were able to attend the ceremony Nor will there be the traditional courtesy visits that were organized after the event and for the health situation Cornelius Sim, Vicar Apostolic of Brunei, and José F. Advincula, Archbishop of Capiz (Philippines) were unable to reach Rome.
Nor was the traditional embrace between the cardinals allowed at the end of the celebration. During the ceremony, the cardinals approached the Pope one by one, some in masks and others not, knelt in front of him and received the cardinal ring, “a symbol of his new universal commitment to the Church”; the cardinal’s cap, “red in memory of the blood of the martyrs who gave their lives to defend the faith” and was assigned a diakonia, a parish in the capital.
AFP and EFE
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