Florida Catholic | Editorial

New cardinals grateful, humble priests in red

Published: 12.07.07

You might think getting inducted into one of the most exclusive “clubs” in the world — the College of Cardinals, only 201 members — would be the happiest day of a Catholic priest’s life. But not according to two humble, self-effacing Americans who took some time for a both serious and lighthearted visit with reporters immediately after the ceremony in which they received the red hat. The two new U.S. cardinals were asked if this was the happiest day of their lives. Both Cardinal John P. Foley and Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, decked out in their bright red robes and the fresh red biretta signifying their new rank among the College of Cardinals, said, while this day was “on the edge” the happiest, days focusing on priestly vocation rated higher.

Cardinal DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, said his happiest day was when as a bishop he ordained his first priest. “No day will probably ever equal that.”

For Cardinal Foley, a former diocesan newspaper editor who spent most of the last 23 years as head of the Vatican’s communications departments and now leads the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher, his happiest day was the day of his own ordination as a priest. “I keep saying I have never had an unhappy day as a priest and I mean it,” he said.

At the press conference at the North American College, just up the hill from St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal DiNardo said he had hoped to be very composed while kneeling in the solemn rite before Pope Benedict XVI, but the zucchetto, or skullcap, kept slipping off. And Cardinal Foley thanked the reporters present for the number of positive stories about him in the media in the week before the consistory, noting it was “nice to be canonized without the inconvenience of dying first.”

He may not have been too far off the mark. In the ceremony in which the 23 new cardinals were given the symbol of their office, the pope reminded the congregation in St. Peter’s Basilica, as he sat at the altar above the tomb of Peter, the first pope and a martyr, that the red color of the cardinals’ robes signifies their willingness to shed even their blood for their faith. At an audience Nov. 26 with pilgrims who had come to Rome for the celebrations, the pope asked the pilgrims to continue offering the new cardinals “friendship, esteem and prayers, helping them continue faithfully to serve the church and to offer an increasingly generous witness of love.”

Cardinal DiNardo said the pope told him at one point “Texas needs a cardinal.” The state, with 15 dioceses, has a broad cultural diversity. The archbishop’s addition to the college of cardinals brings the first red hat to the South and Southwest and only the second west of the Mississippi (Los Angeles has traditionally been headed by a cardinal, but all the other U.S. cardinals have been from the East and Midwest). The honor not only acknowledges Cardinal DiNardo’s work in the church, but also the great contributions of the church in that region and the strong influence of Hispanics in the U.S.

At a Mass Nov. 26, Cardinal Foley recounted his conversation with the Vatican secretary of state when he learned of his new role. The secretary started by saying, “The Holy Father wishes you to …” and then-Archbishop Foley said he stopped him and said, “You don’t have to go any further. The Holy Father is the vicar of Christ and I will do whatever he wants me to do.” He further explained the secretary of state said that was good, because not everyone had that attitude, and then told Archbishop Foley of his new post as grand master of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, which must be a cardinal, “and the Holy Father wishes to make you a cardinal.”

“I thought to myself,” Cardinal Foley said, “there’s virtue in obedience.”

For these two new American cardinals, may there be many happy days ahead, as priests, as bishops and cardinals.

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