Cardinal Inspirations for the Word of God

National Catholic Register, 30 November 2020

Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa stood out in a most unusual Consistory of Cardinals on Nov. 28.

The 2020 consistory for new cardinals was one of the strangest in history due to the pandemic. 

The new cardinals traveling to Rome had to quarantine for 10 days prior to the ceremony in the Domus Sanctae Marthae where Pope Francis lives. But they did not see him. They were confined to their rooms, with meals, towels, laundry and linens delivered to their doors. It may have been the first time since Pope Paul III created St. John Fisher a cardinal while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London that cardinals-designate were confined. The new cardinals eventually got out; St. John Fisher was beheaded. 

“Don’t send the red hat to London,” King Henry VIII is supposed to have said in 1535. “I will send the head to Rome.”

Two cardinals did not make the trip to Rome, either due to pandemic travel restrictions or a lack of enthusiasm for the 10-day confinement. Cardinal Jose Advincula of the Philippines and Cardinal Cornelius Sim of Brunei both stayed in Asia. Brunei’s first cardinal represents a flock so tiny that his apostolic vicariate — not even an official diocese — has three priests. 

Every consistory has its “star” and this time around it was certainly Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, 86, the Capuchin friar who has been preacher of the papal household for 40 years. An outstanding scholar and preacher, he is by custom the only priest who preaches to the Holy Father. 

Whether Pope Francis enjoyed the turnabout of preaching to the newly-created Cardinal Cantalamessa, he may have had the Capuchin in mind when he reminded the new cardinals about the centrality of the Word of God.

“[Sacred Scripture] reveals the truth about Jesus and about us,” the Holy Father said. “We too, pope and cardinals, must always see ourselves reflected in this Word of truth. It is a sharpened sword; it cuts, it proves painful, but it also heals, liberates and converts us.” 

Cardinal Cantalamessa, after an “interior inspiration” in the 1970s, left the world of academic theology behind to devote himself entirely to preaching the Word of God. 

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