John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, is now a Cardinal.
Pope Benedict’s surprise announcement yesterday made Archbishop Onaiyekan Nigeria’s fourth Cardinal after Francis Arinze and Anthony Olubunmi Okogie. Dominic Ekandem, Nigeria’s first Cardinal, is deceased.
Pope Benedict named five other cardinals.
All six are under 80 years old and thus eligible under Church law to enter a conclave that will one day choose Benedict’s successor. Members of the ultra-elite group are known as “cardinal electors”.
The other cardinals are from the United States, Lebanon, India, Colombia and the Philippines. The ceremony to install them, known as a consistory, will be held on November 24, the pope said in a surprise announcement at his weekly general audience.
President Goodluck Jonathan hailed the announcement.
A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said: “President Jonathan believes that Bishop Onaiyekan’s elevation to the highest echelon of the Catholic Church by the Pope clearly shows that the exemplary diligence, dedication and commitment with which he has gone about his labours in the Lord’s vineyard since his ordination in 1969 has been recognised and appreciated.
“The President notes that with Bishop Onaiyekan’s elevation, Nigeria now has three members of the most eminent and distinguished College of Catholic Cardinals.
“He welcomes this as an indication by the Vatican of its continuing recognition of the immense contributions of the Church in Nigeria to the Worldwide Catholic Movement.
“President Jonathan prays that God Almighty will grant Bishop Onaiyekan continued good health and the strength, wisdom and Divine Guidance he will require to discharge his new responsibilities to the Glory of God and his fatherland.
“He wishes him a very successful tenure as Cardinal.”
The pope is a conservative on matters of faith and sexual morals, such as birth control, homosexuality and the ban on women priests. Each time he names cardinals, he chooses men who share his views and can shape the Church’s future.
Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai, 72, the patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church in Lebanon, and Archbishop Onaiyekan, 68, are from countries with significant Muslim populations.
The pope’s decision to raise the two to the highest rank in the Church short of the papacy indicates his concern for relations between Christianity and Islam.
The pope visited predominantly Muslim Lebanon last September and called on members of both faiths to work together to build peace in the Middle East and beyond.
Cardinals are the Pope’s closest aides in the Vatican, where they run its key departments, and around the world, where they head dioceses to administer the 1.2 billion members of the Roman Catholic Church.
Only one of the six new cardinals, Archbishop James Michael Harvey, an American, is based in the Vatican and, in a break with past consistories, none is Italian.
Harvey, 63, whose title is Prefect of the Pontifical Household, looks after world leaders visiting the Vatican and arranges the pope’s audiences. A native of Milwaukee, Harvey has worked in the Vatican for more than two decades.
Benedict was criticised in some Church circles last February when, in choosing his previous batch of cardinals, he elevated many from the Vatican’s central bureaucracy. He was accused of neglecting the needs of the developing world.
Another new Cardinal, Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, 53, the major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara rite in India, is on the front line of inter-religious dialogue with Hinduism.
The other two come from predominantly Catholic countries – Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez, 70, of Bogota, Colombia, and Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, 55, of Manila in the Philippines, which is the largest Catholic country in Asia.
After the consistory, the number of “cardinal electors” will rise to 120, the maximum allowed under Church law. The total number of men in the college of cardinals will be 211.
Benedict has now named 67, or more than half, of the cardinals who will elect his successor from among their own ranks. The other 53 were named by Pope John Paul.
Italians are still by far the largest group of cardinal electors, with 28 members.
The pope’s health appears to be good but he has been looking frail recently and has started using a cane.
Popes usually reign for life but in a book in 2010, Benedict said he would not hesitate to become the first pontiff to resign in more than 700 years if he felt no longer able “physically, psychologically and spiritually” to run the Catholic Church.
The last pope to resign willingly was Celestine V in 1294 after reigning for only five months. Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant to the Holy See.
