New members of the College of Cardinals embrace at the consistory ceremony in St. Peter’s Square. CNS photos from Reuters

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

Vatican City — Presiding over the largest consistory in history, Pope John Paul II created 44 new cardinals and asked them to “shine in wisdom and holiness” as they guide the church around the world.

Gazing over a panorama of red vestments and pilgrims’ flags in St. Peter’s Square Feb. 21, the pope said that in elevating the new cardinals, the church was not celebrating earthly power but a sense of service and humility.

“Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant,” the pope said at the start of his sermon, quoting Christ’s words to his apostles.

The new cardinals included the heads of major archdioceses, Vatican officials, eminent theologians and one longtime personal friend of the pontiff, as well as several church leaders who were persecuted or hindered by authorities during their pastoral careers.

They came from 27 countries and five continents—a geographical mix that the pope said highlighted the church’s global presence in the 21st century.

Three Americans were among those cheered by friends, family and faithful as they knelt before the pope and received the cardinal’s traditional “red hat”: Cardinals Edward M. Egan of New York, Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington and Avery Dulles, a Jesuit theologian. Cardinal Egan is an Oak Park, Ill., native who was ordained and served in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The pope, dressed in gold vestments that glimmered in the sunshine, read the formula of creation and the names of all 44 cardinals at the start of a Liturgy of the Word. He asked them to be “fearless witnesses” of the Gospel in every corner of the earth.

Later, the new cardinals knelt one by one before the pope and accepted the red biretta and a warm embrace from the pontiff. Three Eastern-rite prelates, however, declined the red hat because they felt it was inconsistent with their own traditions. It was the first time such an exemption had been granted, and the Vatican said it showed the pope’s respect for the Eastern churches.

Most of the cardinals were assigned honorary care of a church in Rome, marking their new membership in the clergy of Rome. But two Eastern church patriarchs also declined that honor.

The ceremony marked the induction of the largest group of cardinals ever named, bringing total membership in the College of Cardinals to 184. Of these, 135 were below age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a papal conclave.

The newcomers included two prelates whom the pope named cardinals secretly, or “in pectore,” in 1998, revealing their names only in January. One was an old personal friend of the Polish-born pontiff, Cardinal Marian Jaworski, the Latin-rite archbishop of Lviv in Ukraine. The other was Cardinal Janis Pujats of Riga, Latvia.

The theme of the liturgy echoed from the first reading, in which St. Peter counseled pastors to tend their flocks with humility and told them: “Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock.”

The pope developed that point in his sermon, saying the church was not based on “earthly power and calculation” but on Jesus’ spirit of service. He said he was counting on the new cardinals to be trusted advisors who could help ease the burden of his own ministry.

“Together with (the pope) you should be vigorous defenders of the truth and custodians of the patrimony of faith and customs that have their origin in the Gospel. In this way you will be sure guides for all,” he said.

The pope said the special bond that links each cardinal to Rome and the pope should be used above all to foster church unity.

“If you are promoters of communion, the entire church will be beneficiaries,” he said.

He said the Second Vatican Council had widened participation in positions of responsibility in the church, and that more could be done in that direction.

The ceremony was punctuated by applause from various sectors of a crowd of about 40,000 well-wishers who had traveled to be with the new cardinals on their big day. The pope said the international diversity of the new inductees was significant.

“Is this not a sign that the church, which has reached every corner of the planet, is capable of understanding peoples of different traditions and languages, in order to bring Christ’s message to everyone?” he said.

“In him and in him alone is it possible to find salvation. This is the truth we reaffirm today,” he said.

The pope also underlined that the red color of the cardinals’ vestments symbolizes that their commitment to defend the church’s growth and freedom, and to sacrifice even to the point of shedding their own blood. Among the new group was Vietnamese Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, now a Vatican official, who was jailed for many years by communist authorities in his native country.

The two-hour ceremony included a profession of faith and an oath of fidelity recited by the cardinals, who promised to be “constantly obedient” to the pope, to promote church unity and to maintain the confidentiality of information that could do “damage or dishonor” to the church if revealed.

As the pope handed out the red hats and a scroll attesting to the cardinals’ new dignity, he smiled and spoke a few words to each. The first was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

The last was 82-year-old Cardinal Dulles, who used a cane when he walked slowly up the steps toward the pope’s throne. His red biretta slipped off as he stood up, so he adjusted it, leaned over to embrace the pope, and it fell again into the pope’s lap.

In a short speech to the pope, Cardinal Re praised the pope for every aspect of his pastoral leadership over the last 22 years. He also raised the sensitive issue of papal health—an unusual topic at a ceremony like this one—praying that “the Lord will keep you a long time as head of the church.”

“The people of God still need the example of Your Holiness’ dedication, even when physical powers lessen, because there is a simultaneous increase in the sign of paternity, the witness of prayer and suffering for the church’s benefit. This underscores that, while it is important to act, it is more important to be, and that, in the end, it is Christ who guides his church,” Cardinal Re said.

The 80-year-old pope sat throughout the ceremony, and his voice sounded like he had a cold.

Among those the pope greeted in his homily were representatives of other Christian churches, including Protestant churches in Germany and the Anglican Communion. A representative of the World Council of Churches also attended the ceremony.