DW, 1
September 2019
Pope Francis arrived late for his weekly Angelus prayer service on Sunday, prompting worried worshipers to speculate that the pontiff, 82, may have fallen ill. He surprised the crowd, however, by announcing that his late arrival was due to being stuck in a Vatican elevator for nearly half an hour.
Pope Francis at Angelus prayers |
Pope Francis arrived late for his weekly Angelus prayer service on Sunday, prompting worried worshipers to speculate that the pontiff, 82, may have fallen ill. He surprised the crowd, however, by announcing that his late arrival was due to being stuck in a Vatican elevator for nearly half an hour.
Francis
then further surprised his audience by saying that several of the new cardinals
he had been expected to name would be from the Muslim world as well as clerics
well known for helping refugees.
"I was
trapped in a lift for 25 minutes, there was a power outage and the lift
stopped, but then the firemen came," the pope said.
"Let's
give a round of applause to the fire service," he added, with the crowd
obliging.
13 new
cardinals
The pope
then named the 13 men he will officially elevate to the status of cardinal in
October. Several were from developing countries, such as Cuba, Guatemala, and
Congo. Two more came from the Muslim-majority nations of Morocco and Indonesia.
Another is a Spaniard who works in interfaith dialogue and has a background in
Islamic studies.
The move is
in line with Francis' desire to highlight the work of those in the periphery of
the Church's reach.
"Their
provenance expresses the missionary vocation of the Church to continue to
announce the merciful love of God to all men on Earth," Francis said.
The other
new cardinals include the Czech-Canadian Jesuit priest Michael Czerny, who has
previously worked in ecology and social justice, and is now responsible for
migration and refugees in the Vatican, and Matteo Zuppi, now Archbishop of
Bologna, who was previously with the Sant'Egidio Community charity in Rome,
known for its work with the homeless and refugees.
Cardinals
are among the most powerful leaders of the church, and are the only clergy
eligible to elect a new pope.
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