Michael Kelly
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin The Pope’s appointees to the College of Cardinals reflect the diminished role of Ireland in an increasingly globalised Church, writes Michael Kelly
For the first time in more than 40 years, Ireland will not have a vote in a Papal conclave if there were to be a vacancy of the Holy See. Since he turned 80 on August 16, Cardinal Seán Brady – who participated in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis – is ineligible to participate in a conclave.
Now, since Ireland only received the first red hat when Archbishop Paul Cullen was elevated in 1866, one taking the long view might well ask what the big deal is. But, the fact that Francis chose not to name an Irish prelate when he announced 13 new members of the Sacred College at the weekend shows the extent to which Ireland has fallen in importance in the global Church.
True, the Argentine Pontiff has shown that he wants to appoint cardinals from the existential peripheries opting for far-flung sees rather than traditional Catholic countries like Ireland.
At the same time, as the underwhelming reaction to his visit showed last August, Ireland is a microcosm of the struggle that Europe now finds itself in where many people have grown tired of Faith and the Church has struggled to come to terms with a new reality. In that sense, at least from the point of view of secularism, Ireland is a potent example of the sort of existential peripheries the Church will have to reach if future generations are to embrace the faith.
Papal visit
Amongst the 13 cardinals announced by Francis at the weekend was 67-year-old Archbishop Cristobal Lopez Romero of Rabat, Morocco. The Pontiff visited Morocco earlier this year and was obviously struck by the Spanish-born prelate.
This has not been an uncommon feature under this Pontificate where clerics from sees that were not traditionally associated with the cardinalate were raised after a Papal visit.
For example, Francis visted Sweden in June 2016 – a year later, the Bishop of Stockholm Anders Arborelius was named as a cardinal.
In May 2017, the Pope visited the Marian shrine at Fatima in Portugal and 13 months later Dr António Augusto dos Santos Marto became the first bishop in the town’s history to be elevated to the Sacred College. That same consistory saw the appointment of Jesuit Archbishop Pedro Ricardo Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru get that diocese’s first red hat. Months earlier, Francis has met him during his trip to Peru.
In 2015, the Pope visited the Central African Republic. A year later Spiritan Dieudonné Nzapalainga became the country’s first cardinal and at 49, the youngest member of the College of Cardinals and the first born after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
You get the picture.
Francis has evidently being using his overseas trips as a way to ‘suss out’ potential members of the elite body that will pick his successor.
Whether Ireland actually gets a cardinal in the short- to medium-term must now surely be in doubt. Ireland’s first cardinal – Dr Cullen – was in Dublin when he was appointed by Blessed Pius in 1866.
He arrived in Rome too late to participate in the conclave that elected Leo XIII in 1878 and died eight months later. His successor in Dublin Dr Edward McCabe was appointed a cardinal by Leo in 1882. He died three years later with Leo still on the Papal throne and therefore didn’t participate in a conclave.
Rome looked to the See of St Patrick at Armagh for Ireland’s next cardinal in the person of Archbishop Michael Logue. He was elevated to the college by Pope Leo in 1893. A decade later, he participated in the conclave that elected Pope St Pius X and again in 1914 when Benedict XV was elected on the eve of the First World War (1914-18).
Cardinal Logue also participated in 1922 when Cardinal Achille Ratti was elected on the fourteenth ballot and took the name Pius XI. The Archbishop of Armagh played a prominent role in this conclave and as protopriest of the College of Cardinals was one of those who approached the new Pontiff to ask whether he accepted canonical election.
When Cardinal Logue died in 1924, his coadjutor Archbishop Patrick O’Donnell replaced him in Armagh. A year later, Pius XI created Dr O’Donnell a cardinal appointing him to the titular Church of Santa Maria della Pace. He died two years later in 1927 without participating in a conclave.
When Archbishop Joseph MacRory was appointed to Armagh in 1928, he was appointed as a cardinal the follow year again by Pius XI. A decade later in 1939 at another eve-of-war conclave he participated in the vote that elected Pius XII – the shortest conclave of the 20th Century.
It was seen as a personal honour to Dr Connell…rather than for Dublin or a snub to Armagh”
Cardinal MacRory died in 1945 and was succeeded the follow year by Archbishop John D’Alton who was created cardinal in 1953 by Pius XII. He participated in the 1958 conclave that saw the unexpected election of Pope St John XXIII and led to the calling of Vatican II.
Cardinal D’Alton died in 1963, just six months before John XXIII and Armagh was sede vacante for the conclave that elected Pope St Paul VI in June 1963. Within weeks, the Pope had appointed Archbishop William Conway to Armagh and created him a cardinal in 1965. Cardinal Conway died in 1977 while Paul VI was still governing the Church.
Tomás Ó Fiaich succeed in Armagh in 1977, however he was not created a cardinal until 1979 meaning that he missed both conclaves in 1978 – the August conclave that elected John Paul I and the October concalve that saw the election of the Slavic Pope St John Paul II.
After Cardinal Ó Fiaich’s death while on pilgrimage in Lourdes in 1990 at the age of only 66, he was succeeded in Armagh that same year by Archbishop Cahal Daly. While Dr Daly was created a cardinal the following year in 1991 at the age of 73, the long reign of John Paul II meant that Dr Daly lost the right to vote in an election in 1997 – a full eight years before the Pope died.
Surprise
John Paul II surprised many observers in 2001 when he broke with the tradition of a red hat in Armagh and instead chose Archbishop Desmond Connell of Dublin. This was seen as a breakaway from the traditional post-partition practice of elevating a prelate whose diocese straddles the border.
However, it was seen as a personal honour to Dr Connell – who sat on numerous dicasteries of the Roman Curia including the high-profile Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Congregation for Bishops – rather than for Dublin or a snub to Armagh.
When the cardinals met in 2005 and chose Benedict XVI to succeed as Bishop of Rome, Dr Connell was said to have played a key role in urging English-speaking cardinals to vote for the German Pontiff. Cardinal Connell hosted a dinner at the Pontifical Irish College at which he extolled the virtues of his friend Cardinal Ratzinger to other members of the College of Cardinals.
In 2006, the red hat again returned to Armagh and Archbishop Seán Brady became Ireland’s 11th cardinal. In this capacity in the 2013 conclave, Dr Brady became the first Irishman to vote in a papal election since Cardinal D’Alton in 1958.
Pope Francis has held more regular consistories to appoint cardinals that his predecessors, so if he was so minded to appoint an Irish cardinal he could choose Archbishop Eamon Martin (57) of Armagh as early as next year.
But, for Dublin’s Diarmuid Martin – just months away from retirement – barring a much-touted recall to Rome, that ship appears to have sailed.