Saturday was not just another ceremony because everyone knows that the Pope himself said “the door is open” for his resignation, although it is kindly assumed that this will only happen “the day after tomorrow”.

Nineteen cardinals, of whom 16 are electors and who will vote for Francis’s successor at the next Conclave, knelt one by one before the Pope seated on the papal throne of St. Peter’s Basilica, who he created them cardinals and gave them the symbols of their new condition.

They are the red cardinal’s cap, the cap on the nape and the document of his incardination in a church in Rome, since it was the Roman parish priests who, from St. Peter’s, elected the 266 popes who succeeded him in two thousand years.

Those announced a month ago were 21, but one resigned. It is the bishop emeritus of Ghent, Belgium, Monsignor Lucas Van Looy, who asked the Pope to accept his resignation from the cardinalate in the face of accusations that he had not acted “with energy” to combat the cases of pedophile priests in the diocese of him. Francesco accepted.

Another cardinal, the cardinal-elect Monsignor Richard Kuuia Baawobr of Ghana, suffered a heart attack upon arrival in Rome and was operated on in hospital. The Pope said that Monsignor Baawobr will be created cardinal in “another time”, always in his presence.

controversial presence

A silent but very significant presence was that of Cardinal Angelo Becciú, a former close collaborator of the Pope and a leading figure in the Curia.

Francisco fired him two years ago amid sensational allegations of embezzlement and other crimes, especially in the great scandal over the purchase of a building in London with funds from the Secretary of State.

Business was disastrous. The Vatican recently sold the London building with a loss of over $ 120 million. A trial has been held in the Vatican for months in which Cardinal Becciu is one of the accused.

But the Pope had to back down because his decision to exclude Becciú from his powers and faculties, leaving him the title of cardinal, did not respect the principle of the presumption of innocence of the accused.

The progress of the process reveals this some allegations cannot be proven. We have to wait for the sentence and Francisco has decided to call Becciu and reinstate him in the College of Cardinals. A false step of image for the pontiff.

Visit to Benedict XVI

The one that began this Saturday is the eighth consistory of the ten years of his pontificate which will take place on 13 March.

Catholic columnist Alberto Melloni wrote The Republic What is this a different consistory, with the air of a preconclave, as most Vaticanists believe. At the end of the ceremony, as usual, accompanied by Francis, the nineteen new cardinals (four have turned 80 and are excluded from the Conclave for reasons of age), went through the Vatican gardens to the monastery that houses Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the great German conservative theologian Joseph Ratzinger, who turned 95 and hardly speaks.

The greeting to Ratzinger was an exciting moment for everyone and the theme of the great change that is approaching has dominated the atmosphere. It is known that by order of the Pope, the document that Francis will sign is practically ready with the rules that for the first time in the two thousand year history of the Church will regulate the mechanism of succession when a Pope resigns.

This seminal document is likely to be delayed for one reason only: Ratzinger is still alive and Francis certainly wants to spare him an affront. When he resigned in February 2013, the German pontiff made up for his new status the figure of the Pope Emeritus, who is highly ambiguous.

There is only one pope and Jorge Bergoglio took a historic step when he told two Mexican journalists that when the time comes he will resign as “bishop of Rome”, just like Ratzinger did.

“I will be bishop emeritus,” he told them. He added more. He will not return to Argentina and may agree to stay in the Basilica of San Juan de Letrán, the seat of the bishop of Rome, which is the seat that becomes vacant when a pontiff dies or resigns.

Bergoglio explained that he hopes to have a parish on hand to celebrate mass and visit the sick in the area, as he did in Buenos Aires when he was archbishop.

The painting is complete. Ratzinger modernized himself with the resignation from the Church after 794 years without the voluntary resignation of a Pope and Francis will remove the anomaly of the pope emeritus.

possible successors

His resignation would make it easier for him to influence the succession more. Both preferred candidates Francesco are the president of the Italian bishops and archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Matteo Zupi, and Filipino Cardinal Luis “Chito” Tagle, both iron Bergoglians.

It is no coincidence that all these great innovations preceded the four historic days of the current Consistory, which began this weekend, will stop on Sunday and continue on Monday and Tuesday.

Among the 16 cardinal electors who knelt one by one in front of the Pope were some of his closest collaborators. Like the Spaniard Fernando Vergez Alzaga, governor of the Vatican State and the liturgy expert Arthur Roche, who replaces the conservative Robert Sarah in the Congregation for Divine Worship, who has created problems for Francis. Sarah was retired as soon as she turned 75.

Another important collaborator who received the red beret was the Korean Lazarus You Heung-sil, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Opening to the suburbs

The list of new voters reflects the will to keep the votes steady openness to the “geographical and existential” peripheries, as Jorge Bergoglio has written so many times.

The Argentine Pope demonstrated this by creating the American Cardinal Robert McElroy, of San Diego, California. McElroy is the most advanced of American progressives, who have waged an ongoing struggle against conservatives, led by Archbishop of New York, Timoty Dolan, to allow Catholic abortionists such as President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to they continue to receive communion despite the doctrinal prohibitions that the conservative majority that controls the Church in the United States use as a political club.

Among the Latin Americans chosen by Francis there is the first Paraguayan cardinal, Alberto Martínez Flores, archbishop of Asunción, accompanied by the president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez. Also two Braziliansthe archbishop of Brasilia, Paulo Cesar Costa, and the archbishop of Manaus, capital of the Amazon, Monsignor Leonardo Steiner.

The fourth South American is Colombian Luis Enrique Jiménez Carbajal, archbishop of Cartagena, who did not participate in the Conclave for having turned 80.

The Pope has invited all the members of the College of Cardinals, which number 227, to the Consistory of Rome. It was announced that 197 were present, including cardinals and patriarchs.

With the 16 electors created this Saturday, the cardinals appointed by Jorge Bergoglio who vote in the Conclave reach 117 and amount to 63% of the total.

Two-thirds of the votes are required to elect a pope. But by the end of next year some of them will be 80 and the number will be reduced to 120. The Pope could create new cardinals.

The balance in the Conclave strengthened Americans and Asians once again. They were 44 in 2013 and are now 59.

The Pope’s health is good and stable, as are the problems he suffers from in his right knee which continue to force him to carry out his activities seated and to be transported in a wheelchair.

After the rite of creation of the new cardinals, the Pope presided over an ordinary public consistory in which the cardinals voted for canonization two new saints. These are Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza, founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of San Carlo, and Artemide Zatti, a professed lay Salesian.

This Sunday the Consistory will enter a short break. The Pope will travel to L’Aquila, one hundred kilometers from Rome, to pay homage to the Feast of Forgiveness in homage to the Pope “of the Great Refusal”, Celestino V, who voluntarily resigned from office in 1394.

The gesture of Francis encourages any speculation about his own resignation, despite insisting: until now “I have not thought about resigning”, even if it has opened the doors to the future.

The Pope will return to the Vatican to preside over the second phase of the Consistory on Monday and Tuesday, which will be dedicated to examining the reorganization of the Roman Curia. Among these will be the cardinals. many will see and examine for the first time the new Apostolic Constitution “Preach the Gospel”, which contains the new structure of the central government of the Church.

The Pope will speak to them and there will be no open debate. Pope Francis has banned the participation of cardinals in the general sessions on Monday and Tuesday. It is obvious that the pontiff covers himself with surprise interventions that can ruin everything. For example, one or more conservative cardinals who openly criticize the orientation of his pontificate.

Bergoglio also wants to prevent any cardinal from speaking ill of Vatican policy in China and strategies in Asia.

Vatican correspondent

CB