• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Bishop Robert Barron
          • George Weigel
          • Question Corner
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Suzanna Molino Singleton
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Paul McMullen
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • Subscribe
Cardinal-designate Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, is pictured in this April 18, 2014, file photo. He said his appointment as cardinal was a "recognition of the importance of listening to the word (of God) more than the person who proclaims it." (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Cardinal-designate sees appointment as testament to God’s word

Junno Arocho Esteves November 27, 2020
By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: 2020 Consistory, Feature, News, Vatican, World News

Editor’s note: Each day leading up to the Nov. 28 consistory in Rome that will create 13 new cardinals, the Catholic Review will offer a profile of one of the new cardinals. The profiles will appear in the order in which Pope Francis announced the appointments.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — For Cardinal-designate Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, his elevation to the cardinalate has little to do with his own merits and everything to do with God’s word.

“Since my service to the church has consisted almost exclusively in preaching the Gospel, I thought that the appointment was a recognition of the importance of listening to the word (of God) rather than the person proclaiming it,” Cardinal-designate Cantalamessa told Catholic News Service Nov. 3.

The 86-year-old Capuchin friar is among 13 prelates who will be inducted into the College of Cardinals Nov. 28.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, center, walks with an unidentified clergyman outside the Apostolic Palace after giving Lenten meditations to Pope Francis and members of the Roman Curia at the Vatican March 23, 2018. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope Francis gave him no warning that an announcement was coming; he found out only hearing the pope announce his name Oct. 25 during the Sunday Angelus address.

“I don’t need to tell you the surprise and emotion I felt,” he told CNS. “I would have thought it was someone else if I didn’t have such an unmistakable last name,” which means “sing the Mass” in Italian.

Born July 22, 1934, in Colli del Tronto, he was ordained a priest in the Franciscan Capuchin order in 1958.

Before St. John Paul II named him preacher of the papal household in 1980, Cardinal-designate Cantalamessa served as professor of ancient Christian history and director of religious sciences at the Catholic University of Milan.

As preacher of the papal household, for more than 40 years Cardinal-designate Cantalamessa has offered weekly spiritual reflections to the Roman Curia and the pope during Advent and Lent and has preached the homily on Good Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica.

After preaching to St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the cardinal-designate repeated a favorite explanation:

“In my case, the roles of preacher and listener are reversed. It is actually the pope who silently preaches to me and to the whole church, finding time every Friday morning in Advent and Lent to go and listen to the meditation of a simple priest of the church.”

However, his role as preacher is not confined to the walls of the Eternal City. In 2019, he was sent by Pope Francis to lead the U.S. bishops in a spiritual retreat as they deliberated better ways to address the sexual abuse crisis.

Recalling that “particularly delicate moment,” Cardinal-designate Cantalamessa said that among the fruits he witnessed were the participation of about 250 U.S. bishops as well as their attentiveness to “the meditation and liturgical prayer and silent adoration of the Eucharist” during the retreat.

With news continuing to surface regarding financial corruption and abuses in the church, the cardinal-designate told CNS that as a lecturer on the history of the church, he is “not so much surprised by the current scandals” and remains hopeful for the future of the Catholic Church.

“Looking at things in the very limited span of one’s life and century, we do not realize in how many ways the church today is immensely ‘purer’ than in past centuries: freer of power, pomp, wealth, nepotism, political scheming and — what matters most — is that we are no less rich in saints than in the past.”

“The fact that scandals today are brought to the surface and denounced — and more and more often on the initiative of the institution itself — is in itself great progress,” he added.

Cardinal-designate Cantalamessa confirmed to CNS that he will continue to serve as preacher of the papal household and that since his appointment “is an honorary title and does not involve particular pastoral commitments,” he plans to continue proclaiming “the Gospel by word and writing and to live my life as a Capuchin Franciscan.”

He also said that he is preparing to deliver his annual Advent meditations for Pope Francis and the Roman Curia, which will reflect on the current pandemic as “an opportunity to put some hidden truths and realities back into circulation,” realities such as “death, eternal life and Christ’s presence — thanks to the Incarnation — in the boat of this stormy world of ours.”

2020 Consistory

At Mass with new cardinals, pope warns against worldliness

Pope creates 13 new cardinals, including Washington archbishop

Italian cardinal-designate says he’s simply a pastor

Pope picks Italian-American diplomat, migrant minister, as new cardinal

Mexican cardinal-designate credited for building up indigenous church

Cardinal-designate Gambetti studied engineering, then became a friar

Copyright © 2020 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Junno Arocho Esteves

Junno Arocho Esteves

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

Ibram X. Kendi speaks on antiracism at annual Loyola University MLK Convocation

Sister Marie Dolores Beck dies at 85

Baltimore Archdiocese’s Life is Beautiful Mass honors Alvaré, Clarksville couple

Father Bonadio, Sulpician known for pastoral warmth, dies at 83

High school athletic directors calm coaches, players, parents through pandemic layoffs

Latest World News

Nine Catholics nominated to Cabinet-level jobs in Biden administration

U.S. bishops’ pro-life chair calls plan to codify Roe in federal law ‘tragic’

Poet Amanda Gorman is a light to us all, parishioner says

Bishops say order on LBGTQ equality has implications for religious liberty

God’s word is ‘a love letter to us’ to be read every day, pope says

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Nine Catholics nominated to Cabinet-level jobs in Biden administration
  • Does Holy Name Society still exist?/ Praying for all the dead
  • Names for public spaces matter
  • Ibram X. Kendi speaks on antiracism at annual Loyola University MLK Convocation
  • Sister Marie Dolores Beck dies at 85
  • U.S. bishops’ pro-life chair calls plan to codify Roe in federal law ‘tragic’
  • Poet Amanda Gorman is a light to us all, parishioner says
  • Baltimore Archdiocese’s Life is Beautiful Mass honors Alvaré, Clarksville couple
  • Bishops say order on LBGTQ equality has implications for religious liberty
  • God’s word is ‘a love letter to us’ to be read every day, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2021 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED