Pope warns against corruption as he elevates 13 new cardinals
ROME — Pope Francis raised 13 new cardinals to the highest rank in the Catholic hierarchy Saturday and immediately warned them not to use their titles for corrupt, personal gain, presiding over a ceremony marked by the coronavirus pandemic.
Two new “princes” of the church, from Brunei and the Philippines, didn’t make it to Rome because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, though they were shown on giant screens watching it from home in the nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica.
Most removed their masks when they approached a maskless Francis to receive their red hats, but CardinalWilton Gregory, the first African American cardinal, kept his on. Gregory alsowas one of the only new cardinals who kept his mask on when the group paid a singing courtesy visit to retired Pope Benedict XVI.
During his homily, Francis warned the new cardinals against falling into corruption or using their new rank for personal advancement, saying that just because they have a new title, “Eminence,” doesn’t mean they should drift fromtheir people.
“Let’s think of so many types of corruption in the life of the priesthood,” Francis told the new cardinals, deviating from his prepared text. If they think of themselves so grandly, “you won’t be pastors close to the people, you’ll just be ‘Eminence.’ And if you feel thisway, you’ll have strayed off the road,” the pope warned.
Gregory, the new archbishop ofWashington, told The Associated Press ahead of the ceremony that he viewed his appointment as “an affirmation of Black Catholics in the United States, the heritage of faith and fidelity that we represent.”
Gregory’s appointment comes after racial protests in the U.S. sparked by the latest killing of a Black man by a white police officer. Francis has endorsed the protests and cited the American history of racial injustices.
“There is awareness now of the need for racial reconciliation, an awareness that I have not seen at this levelandat thits intensity before,” Gregory said.
Another social justiceminded cardinal is the retired archbishop of Chiapas, Mexico, Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, who has championed the rights of Mexico’s Indigenous peoples and spearheaded efforts to translate the Bible and liturgical texts into native languages.
With Saturday’s new cardinals, Francis has named 73 of the 128 voting-age cardinals, compared to 39 for Pope Benedict XVI and 16 for St. John Paul II.
The geographical makeup of the College of Cardinals has also shifted under Francis away from Europe, though Europe remains the greatest voting bloc with 53 electors. The Americas — North, Central and South and the Caribbean — together have 37 cardinal electors, even though an estimated 40% of the worlds Catholics live in Latin America and the Caribbean.