Vatican: Pope Francis sends letter to the 21 new cardinals

Pope Francis sent a letter to the 21 new cardinals, whom he will create in a consistory that will be held on December 7, on the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

“With the creation of cardinals you will become part of the clergy of Rome. Welcome! A belonging that expresses the unity of the Church and the link of all the Churches with this one of Rome,” writes the Holy Father in the text released this October 12, the day of the Virgin of Pilar, by the Press Office of the Vatican.

In this group of 21 new cardinals there are 5 from Latin America: Bishop Jaime Spengler, Archbishop of Porto Alegre (Brazil), Bishop Vicente Bokalic, Archbishop of Santiago del Estero (Argentina), Bishop Carlos Castillo, Archbishop of Lima (Peru) ), Mons. Fernando Chomalí, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile and Mons. Luis Cabrera, Archbishop of Guayaquil (Ecuador).

“I encourage you to let your cardinalate embody those three attitudes with which an Argentine poet—Francisco Luis Bernárdez—described Saint John of the Cross, but which is also good for us: ‘high eyes, hands together, bare feet‘”, Pope Francis exhorts in his letter.

“Eyes high, because your service will require broadening your gaze and expanding your heart, being able to look further and love more universally with greater intensity. Enter the school of his gaze—Benedict XVI—which is the open Side of Christ.”

“Hands together, because what the Church needs most—along with the announcement—is your prayer to shepherd the flock of Christ well. “Prayer, which is the area of ​​discernment to help me seek and find the will of God for our people, and follow it,” wrote Pope Francis.

“Bare feet, touching the harshness of the reality of many corners of the world intoxicated with pain and suffering due to war, discrimination, persecution, hunger and numerous forms of poverty that will demand so much compassion and mercy from you,” the Holy Father continued. .

“Thanking you for your generosity, I pray for you that the title of ‘servant’—deacon—will increasingly overshadow that of ’eminence.’ Pray for me and may Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin be with you,” concludes Pope Francis.

Who was Francisco Luis Bernárdez?

Bernárdez (1900 – 1978) was a prominent Argentine Catholic poet and diplomat, author of The ship (1935), The city without Laura (1938), elementary poems (1942), Poems of flesh and blood (1943), among others.

He worked at the newspaper La Nación. Since 1928 he wrote in the magazine Criterionin which GK Chesterton, Gabriela Mistral and her friend Jorge Luis Borges, among others, have written. He was part of the founding group of the newspaper El Mundo.

He was Minister of Public Procedures. He entered the Argentine Academy of Letters. After the coup d’état of 1955 he worked as ambassador in Madrid. In his last years he became blind but maintained his enthusiasm for letters.