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Vatican City (Fides Service) - The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI presided this morning 24 March 2006 in St Peter’s Square his first Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of fifteen new Cardinals.
The first of the Cardinals William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, expressed gratitude and best wishes to the Pope on behalf of the other fourteen new cardinals.
“The Ordinary Public Consistory is an event that manifests most eloquently the universal nature of the Church, which has spread to every corner of the world in order to proclaim to all people the Good News of Christ our Saviour”, Pope Benedict XVI said in his homily .
Addressing the new cardinals the Pope said “Total and generous availability to serve others is the distinctive mark of those in positions of authority in the Church, because it was thus for the Son of Man, who came "not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45). Although he was God, or one might even say driven by his divinity, he assumed the form of a servant - "formam servi" - as is wonderfully expressed in the hymn to Christ contained in the Letter to the Philippians (cf. 2:6-7)”.
Yes, venerable and dear Brothers, these words of the Prince of the Apostles apply particularly to those who are called to wear the scarlet of a cardinal: "I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed" (1 Pet 5:1).
“May the scarlet that you now wear always express the caritas Christi, inspiring you to a passionate love for Christ, for his Church and for all humanity. You now have an additional motive to seek to rekindle in yourselves those same sentiments that led the incarnate Son of God to pour out his blood in atonement for the sins of the whole world. I am counting on you, venerable Brothers, I am counting on the entire College into which you are being incorporated, to proclaim to the world that "Deus caritas est",”, the Pope concluded.
(AP) (24/3/2006 Agenzia Fides; Righe:26; Parole:314)
