By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: With the appointment of Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu to the Council of Cardinals (C 9), Pope Francis has selected two Capuchins among his seven close confidants.
The Council of Cardinals, also known as the Council of Cardinal Advisers, is a group of cardinals of the Catholic Church appointed by Pope Francis to serve as his advisers.
The Council of Cardinals, known as C 9, originally had 9 members handpicked by the Pope as his advisors. It was announced on April 13, 2013, a month after Francis’ election as the Pope, and was formally established on September 28 in the same year..
Cardinal Besungu, a Capuchin, is a Congolese Archbishop of Kinshasa since his appointment on November 1, 2018.
Cardinal Ambongo has been an outspoken defender of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As Bishop-Director of the Justice and Peace Commission for the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (Cenco), he received many death threats for speaking out against the unbridled exploitation of Congo’s vast mineral fields and large forest areas by both local and foreign agents.
Convinced of the importance of “networking,” he paralleled the plundering of the Amazon with that of his own country, once declaring, “as soon as a resource is discovered, whether they are precious minerals or oil, we already know that a war will break out.”
Last year, the cardinal showed he was an ardent defender of Catholic lay organizations by staging Sunday demonstrations against the former president. The demonstrations were met with a harsh response from the country’s security forces.
Cardoma; O’Malley was made a cardinal in 2006. He was considered a papabile contender to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned on February 28, 2013. On April 13, 2013, Francis appointed Cardinal O’Malley to Council of Cardinal Advisers to help the Pope govern the Catholic Church and reform its central administration.
Since March 22, 2014, Cardinal O’Malley has served as the president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. On January 14, 2017, the Pope appointed him to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Pope Francis also renominated Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of India’s Bombay, to the Council of Cardinals.
Heartening to see franciscan friars with Pope Francis.
Papal is right because as he said all are children’s of God
If I correctly recall the pope’s personal confessor is also a Capuchin. In my latest book under publication I had predicted that Cardinal Fridolin would be elected as the next pope in April 2026, after Pope Francis resigns in March that year on completing 13 years as pope. I wrote this before the present appointment. Wonder if I will be proved correct!