Rector Magnificus

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Cardinal Raffaele Farina, President of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion (Italy) turns 80, ceases to be a Cardinal-elector

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Today, Tuesday, 24 September 2013, Cardinal Raffaele Farina, Cardinal-Deacon of S. Giovanni della Pigna, the Archivist Emeritus of the Vatican Secret Archives and the current President of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion, of Italy, turns 80, and therefore, according to the rules written in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, he loses his right to vote in any future conclave.

Cardinal Raffaele Farina was made Cardinal-Deacon of S. Giovanni della Pigna by Pope Benedict XVI in the 2007 Consistory of Cardinals on 24 November 2007, the second of his pontificate. He was also the once the Rectors of several Pontifical Universities and the Prefect and later Librarian of the Vatican Apostolic Library.

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http://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/data/cardB16-2.htm#743

May God bless His Eminence Cardinal Farina, with a blessed old age and health. May he remain strong in the faith and hopefully can perhaps still carry out the mission God had given him.

The College of Cardinals now stands at 201 members in total, with 110 Cardinal-electors and 91 Cardinal non-electors. There are now vacancy of 10 Cardinal-electors as compared to the maximum number of electors allowed in the Conclave of 120, although Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI had sometimes surpassed this limit.

Next Cardinal-elector to age out (80) will be Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, the Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Sao Salvador da Bahia (Brazil),  on 19 October 2013.

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Cardinal Angelo Scola : An intellectual Cardinal with humble backgrounds

Cardinal Angelo Scola, the current Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan, was born in humble, poorer family, with a truck driver as a father, and his mother was a simple housewife. Yet behind that humble origins, lie a powerful intellect and mind, and which in addition to his close friendship with our Pope Benedict XVI made him not only a great pastor and shepherd, but also a great intellectual powerhouse of the Church. He published more than 120 books and works on theology and other matters of the faith, and one of the great writers of the Church like Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Cardinal Angelo Scola was made as Bishop of Grosseto in 1991, before appointed as Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical Lateran University in 1995. At the same time, he was also made the president of the Pontifical Institute of John Paul II for Studies on Marriage and Family. In 2002, he was appointed as the Patriarch of Venice, and was made a Cardinal-Priest of Ss. XII Apostoli (Twelve Apostles) in the Consistory of October 2003.

Cardinal Scola was then appointed as the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan, the largest archdiocese in Italy and in the world, in June 2011, and received his pallium (symbol of office of the Metropolitan Archbishop) personally from Pope Benedict XVI himself.

Let us pray for Cardinal Scola, that if he is elected as our new Pope, that God will continue to be with him and guide him as He has always done until now. Pray for our Cardinal-electors, that they will make their choice guided by the Holy Spirit to elect a new shepherd for God’s holy people.