The 2 Brazilians among Pope Francis’ 21 new cardinals

Brazil now officially has two new cardinals, one of them from the Amazon – the first in the country’s history of the Catholic Church.

With the ceremony of the Ordinary Public Consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican last Saturday, the Brazilians Monsignor Paulo Cezar Costa, archbishop of Brasilia, and Monsignor Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, archbishop of Manaus, now join the College of Cardinals that has among its attributions the choice of Pope Francis’ successor, should he die or retire.

In all, Francis appointed 21 new cardinals to the college, which now has 227 members, of whom 132 are electors.

The eighth consistory of Francis’ pontificate comes at a time when the 85-year-old Pope himself has admitted the possibility of resignation after returning from an exhausting schedule in Canada at the end of July.

DON LEONARDO STEINER AND THE AMAZON

A critic of the current government’s policies for the Amazon region, Franciscan Bishop Leonardo Steiner, 71, born in Forquilhinha (Santa Catarina state), has been in intense contact with the Amazon region since 2005, when he was appointed bishop by Pope John Paul II for the Prelature of São Felix, in Mato Grosso.

After being appointed by Pope Francis as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Manaus on November 27, 2019, he participated in the articulation to hold the Synod of the Amazon.

Archbishop Leonardo considered his appointment “an expression of affection, welcome, closeness and care of Pope Francis for the entire Amazon,” he said.

He recalled that “the collaboration that I can give to the Holy Father is precisely to make the Amazon be remembered because, in some moments, the Pope always reminds us that this part of Brazil is in his heart”.

According to the archbishop, the situation in the Amazon is very tense. He recalled the deaths of English journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, murdered in May this year by criminals acting in the Amazon. He said that the people responsible had not been arrested.

He also mentioned the murder of the American missionary Dorothy Stang in February 2005 in Pará, where it was difficult to punish those who ordered the killings.

“We are even in a little bit of danger, given the violence that exists, the apprehension that we live, of forgetting our peoples as indole, as culture.”

DON PAULO CEZAR DA COSTA, THE YOUNG CARDINAL

Appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Rio in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI, Don Paulo Cezar da Costa took over the Archdiocese of Brasilia in October 2020.

Born in Valença (Rio de Janeiro), he also worked in the diocese of São Carlos, the interior of São Paulo. At 55, he is considered a young cardinal.

Dom Paulo Cezar said that his appointment means the trust of the Pope but also the responsibility to carry out what Francis wants for the Church.

“May it be a close, evangelizing, and missionary Church. The feeling is one of gratitude for what Francis is doing, whether for the Church of Brazil, of the Amazon, for the Church of Brasilia, and at the same time feeling God’s merciful love for me.”

He recalled that the current times are challenging, and the Pope expects much from the Church of Brazil.

“The first big visit Francis made was to Brazil; in a way, our country is in his heart. I think the Pope wanted to toast the Church of Brazil, the Amazon, and the Midwest with two servants of the people of God. I have always been aware that our ministry is to be a servant of the people of God. So our Church can be a little more beautiful, more evangelizing, more missionary.”

CARDINALS MEETING

This Monday and Tuesday, the cardinals will meet to reflect on the new Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which went into effect on June 5.

The call for this “pre-conclave” has increased speculation about the possible resignation of Francis, who completed ten years of the papacy in March 2023 and is in poor health.

Francis underwent colon surgery in 2021 and has reduced mobility because of knee pain.

Of the new nominees, 16 have the right to vote because they are under 80 years old.

In addition to the two Brazilians, the Argentinean Pope nominated two other cardinals from South America – Paraguay and Colombia – and from other countries considered to be more peripheral, where the Church has been growing, such as India (two), Nigeria, East Timor, Singapore, and Mongolia.

The number of cardinal electors has varied throughout history. In 1586, Pope Sixtus V fixed the number at 70.

In 1973, Pope Paul VI limited the number to 120, which Pope John Paul II maintained.

BRAZILIAN CARDINALS

Until the nomination of the new cardinals, Brazil had five members in the college of cardinals.

The oldest, named by Pope Benedict XVI, are Monsignor Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo (São Paulo); Monsignor Raymundo Damasceno, archbishop emeritus of Aparecida (São Paulo); and Monsignor Assis João Braz de Aviz, current prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Pope Francis nominated the other two: Monsignor Orani João Tempesta, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro); and Monsignor Sergio da Rocha, Archbishop of Salvador (Bahia) and Primate of Brazil.

Geraldo Majella Agnelo, appointed cardinal in 2001, resigned in 2011 due to age.

With the new appointments, Brazil now has 24 cardinals in its history, five from Minas Gerais, five from Santa Catarina, four from Rio Grande do Sul, four from São Paulo, two from Pernambuco, one from Rio de Janeiro, one from Ceará, one from Alagoas, and one from Rio Grande do Norte.

Don Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti, from Pernambuco, nominated by Pope Pius X in 1905, was the first priest to be elevated to cardinal in Latin America.

With information from Exame