Newsletter of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
Rome, Italy
April 9, 2005

Redemptorist Cardinals will participate in Conclave

Two Redemptorist Cardinals will participate in the Conclave to elect the successor to the throne of Peter: Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval, C.SS.R., Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, C.SS.R., Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly for Syro-Malabars, India.

Cardinal Sandoval was professed a Redemptorist on August 2, 1957. He was ordained on July 29, 1962. He holds a degree in Social Ministry from EMACAS University, France. Among his Redemptorist assignments were being superior of the Redemptorist community in Vallegrande and vicar forane. On April 15, 1978 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of La Paz and was ordained to the episcopacy on June 8th of that year by Cardinal José Clemente Maurer, C.SS.R., Archbishop of Sucre. Bishop Sandoval chaired the episcopal Commission on the Laity, Youth and Vocations and was a member of CELAM’s Commission on the Laity. On January 9, 1982 he became the Ordinary of Oruro, Bolivia.

As Bishop, he attended the 1980, 1985 and 1987 Synod of Bishops and the Special Assembly for America in 1977. He was elected President of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference in 1985 and 1988 -- and is currently President.

On February 6, 1991, Bishop Sandoval was appointed Archbishop of Santa Cruz. He has held an Archdiocesan Synod, has actively promoted vocations and has built a new major seminary.

Archbishop Sandoval was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II at the Consistory of February 21, 2001. He holds curial memberships on the Council on the Laity and the Commission on Latin America.

Cardinal Vithayathil was professed a Redemptorist on August 2, 1947. He was ordained a Redemptorist priest on June 12, 1954. He holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome. For 25 years he taught canon law at the Redemptorist Major seminary in Bangalore. He also served as Provincial for India and Sri Lanka from 1978 – 1984. He was President of the Conference of Religious in India in 1984 and 1985. He became Apostolic Administrator of the Asirvanam Benedictine Monastery in Bangalore from 1990-1996.

On November 11, 1996, he was appointed titular Archbishop of Ohrid and Apostolic Administrator of the vacant see of Ernalulam-Angamaly for Syro-,Malabars, receiving Episcopal ordination from Pope John Paul II on Janaury 6, 1997. In 1998 he was named Archbishop of Ckeikh-Abadeh. On December 18, 1999 Archbishop Vithayathil was appointed Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly for Syro-Malabars. He also serves as President of the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church. For a comprehensive look at the Syro-Malabar Church see their website at: http://www.thesyromalabarchurch.org/

Archbishop Vithayathil was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II at the Consistory of February 21, 2001. He holds curial memberships in the Congregation for Oriental Churches and on the Councils for Christian Unity and Legislative texts.

Three other Cardinals have connections with the Redemptorists through their association with the Alphonsianum Academy for Moral Theology: Cardinal Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Turin, Italy, who holds a licentiate in moral theology from the Academy; Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania who hold a doctorate in moral theology from the Academy; and Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras who studied at the Alphonsianum in addition to his doctoral studies in theology at the Pontifical Lateran University. Cardinal Maradiaga is often mentioned by the press as a "papabile".

Experts and pundits are saying that there are several key qualities emerging that the College of Cardinals will consider in choosing a new Pope.

1)   Age: Should the new Pope be young and vigorous to take on the challenges of the 3rd Millennium? Or should the Pope be older -- a caretaker --to slowly transition out from the large shadow left by John Paul II?
2)   Nationality: Should the Papacy be returned to an Italian or continue to be internationalized? Should a Pope be chosen who reflects the areas of the greatest growth of the Church – in the emerging nations of South America, Africa or Asia?
3)   Style of leadership: Should the new Pope be an advocate of centralization or collegiality? Progressive or conservative?
4)   Ecumenism: Should we have a Pope who will continue the dialoge with Jews, the separated brethren, and especially the Muslims in today’s world? Is there a need for another Ecumenical Council?

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URGENTE

The Union of Superiors General invites religious across the world to celebrate the death of John Paul II with faith, hope and in deep communion with the entire Church together with all men and women of good will.

We give thanks to the Father for the gift of the life of John Paul II and for his testimony of faith, which was marked by an unshakeable faithfulness to Christ. We are grateful for the prophetic message, full of audacity and light, which he courageously preached.

John Paul II continues to be present in our midst, with his patient endurance in suffering, his tireless zeal for the work of the Kingdom, which he carried out until the end, since, as he once remarked: “I will have all eternity to rest”, and with his passion for Christ and for humanity. He remains among us with his inspirational call to creative fidelity, issued in his post-synodal exhortation, Vita Consecrata.

Through his message to the recent international Congress on the Consecrated Life, John Paul II called us to new hope. We consider his words as his legacy to religious life: “Today consecrated men and women are called to offer to humanity, disoriented, exhausted and without memory, a credible witness of Christian hope.” (Giovanni Paolo II, Message to the participants at the International Congress on Consecrated Life, 27 November 2004).

During this week many of us have prayed before the mortal remains of John Paul II in the Basilica of Saint Peter, asking that Amen!, his final prayer, may be the daily prayer of all religious. Thus we too will be able to accept the dying, which is the portal to life itself.

Fr. Alvaro Rodriguez Echevarria,FSC
Presidente USG

Joseph Tobin, CSSR
Vicepresidente USG