ROXAS City – In an unusual consistory at the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis formally elevated Archbishop Jose Advincula of Capiz to the rank of cardinal.
Advincula failed to make it to the Vatican – seat of the 1.2 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church – and attend the ceremony due to coronavirus disease pandemic travel restrictions.
Cardinal Cornelius Sim of Brunei also skipped the “red hat ceremony” for the same reason.
Advincula, 68, instead followed the consistory around 11 p.m. on Saturday at the archbishop’s residence here via livestream from St. Peter’s Basilica.
Along with some priests, he watched the consistory on laptop computer while wearing a “choir” cassock.
The new cardinal admitted having “apprehensions” because of the tasks attached to his new mission.
In the Vatican, Pope Francis read each of the names of the 13 new “princes of the church”, including Advincula’s, and gave those present their red hats and rings.
The Holy See press office earlier said a representative of the Pope would present Advincula with the red hat, cardinal’s ring and title connected with a Roma parish “at a time to be decided later”.
Advincula will also receive his distinctive insignia.
During the consistory, Pope Francis assigned Advincula a titular church in Rome just like the other cardinals. Thus he is now also the cardinal-priest of San Vigilio, a late 20th century parish church.
All the new cardinals, who promised to obey the Pope, is tasked to offer him advice and eventually elect his successor.
Advincula is eligible to vote in a conclave (election for a new pope).
He is also one of the only two active Filipino cardinals aside from Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle who is now based in the Vatican.
According to Vatican News, the physical distance made Saturday’s consistory unusual “but not unprecedented”. In February 2014, a cardinal-designate got a special dispensation to skip the in-person ceremony due to age and ill-health. The Dean of Cardinals then bestowed the biretta and cardinal’s ring upon Cardinal Loris Francesco a month later.
The new cardinals did not also follow the long-standing tradition of receiving well-wishers after the ceremony because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Advincula is just the ninth Filipino to be made a cardinal in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Aside from Advincula and Tagle, there are just two other living Filipino cardinals – Manila Archbishop Emeritus Gauidencio Cardinal Rosales and Cotabato Archbishop Emeritus Orlando Quevedo. But both are more than 80 years old already, thus no longer eligible to vote in a conclave, according to Church’s rules.
The other Filipinos named cardinal in the past (now all deceased) were Rufino Santos and Jaime Sin, who both served as Manila archbishop; Ricardo Vidal and Julio Rosales who both served as Cebu archbishop; and Jose Sanchez, who served as prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy. (CBCPNEWS/PN)
