Ss. XII Apostoli

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Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re (Italy), Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops turns 80, ceases to be a Cardinal-elector

VATICAN POPE HOLY THURSDAY

Today, Thursday, 30 January 2014, Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re of Italy, Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto, the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops, 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 Giovanni Batista Re was made Cardinal-Priest of Ss. XII Apostoli by Pope John Paul II in the 2001 Consistory of Cardinals on 21 February 2001, the eighth Consistory of his pontificate. Cardinal Re was made a Cardinal in honour of his long service to the Church as the Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops and the College of Cardinals from 1987 to 1989, and works in the Secretariat of State, until in 2000 when he was appointed the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Cardinal Re was promoted as one of the six Cardinal Bishops in the Church in 2002, after the passing of Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin.

RE Giovanni Battista

In his position as the senior Cardinal Bishop under 80 in 2013 Conclave, he is the Acting Dean of the College of Cardinals in the 2013 Papal Conclave which elected Pope Francis as the 266th Pope and Leader of the Universal Church.

http://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/data/cardJP2-8.htm#134

May God bless His Eminence Cardinal Re, with a blessed old age and health. May he remain strong in the faith and hopefully can perhaps still continue to work great graces and good works of love and peace in his old age and retirement, as he continued to minister to the people of God.

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The College of Cardinals now stands at 199 members in total, with 106 Cardinal-electors and 93 Cardinal non-electors. There are now vacancy of 14 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 Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, the current Metropolitan Archbishop of Thanh-Pho Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), on 5 March 2014.

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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.