Year: 2024

The Dispatch

Nancy Pelosi criticizes Pope Francis and Archbishop Cordileone in new interview

December 10, 2024 Catholic News Agency 33
Pope Francis speaks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi after Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 2022. / Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi criticized Pope Francis for the Vatican’s deal with China regarding bishop appointments during an interview with the National Catholic Reporter published on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

The congresswoman from California and former speaker of the House of Representatives told the outlet that she is “not too happy” about the Vatican-China agreement, saying: “I don’t know what they have achieved” and adding: “Do you know of any success?”

“We have, for decades, seen the suffering of Catholics in China,” Pelosi, who is Catholic, told the Reporter. “I have a completely different view [from Francis]. … Why should the Chinese government be having a say in the appointment of bishops? I’ve talked to some folks here and they’re, ‘Well, we have to keep up with the times.’ What?! I don’t get that.”

In January 2018, Pope Francis and Chinese officials entered into a deal that gives the Chinese Communist Party input on bishop appointments. Most of the details of the deal and how it functions have not been made public, but the pontiff revealed in September 2023 that the agreement created a joint China-Vatican commission on the appointment of bishops.

The agreement has been renewed three times, most recently in October. The most recent renewal extends the deal into October 2028. Despite the appearance of friendlier relations on the surface, a report published in October by the Hudson Institute found that the “religious repression of the Catholic Church in China has intensified” since the deal went into effect. In November 2022, the Vatican accused China of violating the terms of the deal. 

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi referenced the Gospel of Matthew in her critique of the Vatican-China agreement. 

“Let me say it this way: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,’” Pelosi said. “Every bishop has sprung from that rock. And now, the Chinese government?”

The congresswoman said she had spoken to the papal nuncio about “what our concerns were,” and commented that those concerns were bipartisan: “This brings a lot of us together because, over time, even bishops were being killed. I mean, this is like martyrs.”

Pelosi also showed solidarity with Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong and staunch critic of the Chinese Communist Party and Vatican-China deal. In 2022, Hong Kong police arrested the cardinal for his role in assisting pro-democracy protesters for their legal fees, but he was later released on bail.

“With all the respect in the world for His Holiness, Pope Francis, my point of view is closer to the cardinal of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen,” Pelosi told the Reporter.

In 2020, Zen told CNA that he had not seen any positive changes for the Church following the deal with China. 

“Is there any choice between helping the government to destroy the Church or resisting the government to keep our faith?” Zen said.

According to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in October, China has continued its persecution of Catholics and other religious faiths through its policy of the “sinicization of religion,” which means to make the religion conform to Chinese culture.

The report noted that, in practice, the policy essentially subordinates faiths to “the [Chinese Communist Party’s] political agenda and Marxist vision for religion.” This includes censorship of religious texts, forcing clergy to preach the party’s ideology, and requiring the display of Chinese Communist Party slogans in the churches.

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi also spoke about a wide variety of other issues, which included the decline of Catholic support for the Democratic Party in the 2024 elections and her feuds with Catholic bishops over her adamant support of abortion.

Although her bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, prohibited her from receiving Communion within the archdiocese because of her support for abortion, Pelosi told the Reporter that she “received Communion anyway” and said: “That’s his problem; not mine.” 

“My Catholic faith is: Christ is my savior,” Pelosi said. “It has nothing to do with the bishops.”

Pelosi won her reelection by a more than 60-point margin in the heavily Democratic 11th Congressional District in California. The congresswoman, who turns 85 in March 2025, resigned from her leadership position within the Democratic Party in 2016 and was replaced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who currently serves as the House minority leader.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Why cardinals get Roman churches: Understanding Pope Francis’ use of titular parishes

December 10, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Pope Francis prays at the consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Dec 10, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

On Dec. 7, in the 10th consistory of his pontificate, Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals. In addition to giving each new cardinal a scarlet zucchetto and biretta, and the traditional cardinalatial ring, the Holy Father assigned to each new cardinal a church of Rome — either a presbyteral title or deaconry — as a sign of the pontiff’s pastoral solicitude over the city and in keeping with the very old custom that cardinals are considered titular or honorary members of the clergy of Rome. 

In doing so, Francis also continued a trend of establishing new titular churches — nine this time — from among the more than 900 churches in the Diocese of Rome.

At the time of their official entry into the College of Cardinals, both cardinal priests and cardinal deacons are assigned a titular church in Rome, although the cardinals have no rights of governance over their titular church and may not interfere in its proper administration.

Instead, they may assist their church with counsel, financial support, or some other form of patronage. Cardinals take formal possession of their church after they become cardinals in a consistory, and they might visit their church, hear confessions, say Mass there, and even lead pilgrimages in coordination with the church or parish staff.

There are two types of titular churches (Italian, “titoli cardinalizi”) for cardinals: titles and deaconries. A title (Latin, “titulus,” Italian, “titolo”) is typically assigned to cardinal priests and a deaconry (Latin and Italian, “diaconia”) is assigned to cardinal deacons.

By custom, each cardinal is appointed to a rank within the college: cardinal bishop, cardinal priest, or cardinal deacon. Each cardinal receives a titular church according to the rank he possesses. Cardinal bishops are the most senior members of the college, hold the most important offices in the Roman Curia, or are Eastern patriarchs. With the exception of the patriarchs, cardinal bishops receive the title of one of the suburbicarian sees surrounding Rome. 

The largest group of cardinals are those belonging to the second rank — cardinal priests. They are mostly bishops and archbishops who head dioceses and archdioceses all over the world (such as New York, Tokyo, or Madrid) or officials of long service in the Roman Curia who have chosen to be promoted from the ranks of cardinal deacons after 10 years. 

Cardinal deacons are primarily officials of the Roman Curia and other priests and bishops who are honored for their service to the Church with elevation to the cardinalate. 

If, however, a cardinal deacon moves from the ranks of the cardinal deacons to cardinal priests he will customarily receive a new title appropriate for a cardinal priest or possibly request that his deaconry be elevated to a title for the time he holds it. Should a cardinal priest be elevated to the rank of cardinal bishop, he will customarily receive a title to a suburbicarian see.

With the creation of the 21 new cardinals, Pope Francis assigned each a new title or deaconry. The list of new cardinals and their titular churches is as follows:

  • Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, former nuncio: Ss. Angeli Custodi a Città Giardino (deaconry)

  • Cardinal Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, Peru: S. Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone (title)

  • Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic, CM, of Santiago del Estero, Argentina: S. Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio (title)

  • Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, OFM, of Guayaquil, Ecuador: Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle (title)

  • Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Santiago, Chile: S. Mauro Abate (title)

  • Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, of Tokyo: S. Giovanni Leonardi (title)

  • Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan, Philippines: Trasfigurazione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo (title)

  • Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, SVD, of Belgrade, Serbia: S. Maria Stella Maris (title)

  • Cardinal Jaime Spengler, OFM, of Porto Alegre, Brazil: S. Gregorio Magno alla Magliana Nuova (title)

  • Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Ss. Mario e Compagni Martiri (title)

  • Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, of Algiers, Algeria: S. Cuore di Gesù agonizzante a Vitinia (title)

  • Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Conv, of Tehran and Isfahan, Iran: S. Giovanna Antida Thouret (title)

  • Cardinal Roberto Repole of Turin, Italy: Gesù Divino Maestro alla Pineta Sacchetti (title)

  • Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar for the Diocese of Rome: S. Maria Assunta e S. Giuseppe a Primavalle (title)

  • Cardinal Francis Leo of Toronto: S. Maria della Salute a Primavalle (title)

  • Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major: S. Eustachio (deaconry)

  • Cardinal Mykola Bychok, CSSR, Eparch of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians (Ukrainian bishop in Australia) Australia: S. Sofia a Via Boccea (title)

  • Cardinal Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, theologian: Ss. Nomi di Gesù e Maria in via Lata (deaconry)

  • Cardinal Father Fabio Baggio, CS, undersecretary and head of the section for migrants and refugees at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development: S. Filippo Neri in Eurosia (deaconry)

  • Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, organizer of papal trips: Diaconia S. Antonio di Padova a Circonvallazione Appia (deaconry)

  • Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, archbishop of Naples: San Marco in Agro Laurentino (title)

Normally, new cardinals are appointed to titular churches that had fallen vacant either by the death or transfer of the previous holder. At the time of the consistory on Dec. 7, there were 12 vacant titles and nine vacant deaconries. Francis filled seven of the vacant titles and five of the vacant deaconries. The remaining nine were entirely new, constituted on the very day of the consistory by Pope Francis, marking the continuation of a trend of the last years. 

It must be remembered, of course, that the pope does not have to assign cardinals to vacant presbyteral titles and deaconries; he is entirely free to institute new ones, and that is what he chose to do again for this consistory.

In the last consistory, for example, in 2023, the pope established seven new titles for cardinal priests: St. Bernadette Soubiros to Cardinal Angel Sixto Rossi, archbishop of Cordoba; Santi Cirillo e Metodio to Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, archbishop of Lodz; Santa Gemma Galgani to Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, archbishop of Juba; Santa Maria in Montesanto to Cardinal Protase Rugambwa, archbishop of Tabora; Santa Maria Causa Nostrae Letitiae to Cardinal Sebastan Francis, bishop of Penang; San Giovanni Battista de La Salle to Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, bishop of Hong Kong; and San Gaetano to Cardinal Diego Rafael Padron Sanchez, archbishop Emeritus of Cumaná.

At the same time, the Holy Father instituted two new deaconries: Santa Monica in Ostia and Sant’Ambrogio della Massima, assigning them to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, respectively.

For his 10th consistory, Francis assigned nine new titles: S. Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone to Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio; S. Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio to Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic; Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle to Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera; S. Mauro Abate to Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib; S. Giovanni Leonardi to Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi; S. Maria Stella Maris to Cardinal Ladislav Nemet; Ss. Mario e Compagni Martiri to Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo; S. Giovanni Antida Thouret to Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu; and S. Maria Assunta e St. Giuseppe a Primavalle to Cardinal Baldassare Reina.  

Most of the new titular churches are situated in the suburban municipalities that ring the center of Rome, while Santa Maria Stella Maris is all the way out in Ostia on the coast. 

Francis clearly wants his new cardinals to have their churches in every corner of the sprawling Roman diocese. 

To drive this point home, only one new title, Santa Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio, is located in the historic center of the Eternal City, and he deliberately left unfilled several very prominent but currently vacant titles, including the truly historic Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, which has been vacant since 2022. 

In total, since the beginning of his pontificate and in 10 different consistories Pope Francis has instituted 41 new presbyteral titles and four new diaconal titles. To date, there are 184 existing presbyteral titles and 71 deaconries.

Using AI, the Vatican recently launched a digital “dashboard” of the College of Cardinals. Users can sort the cardinals by age, country of origin, electoral status, and religious order.

[…]