Bishop Joseph Zen joins College of Cardinals

HONG KONG (SE): Great excitement greeted the announcement that Shanghai-born Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the ordinary of Hong Kong diocese, is to be elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI at a ceremony in Rome on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation. Bishop Zen was named by the pope, together with 14 others, to become a member of the College of Cardinals.

“This shows that Hong Kong is an important diocese in the eyes of the Vatican,” said Sister Beatrice Leung, a professor from the International Affairs Department of the Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, in Kaohsiung, Taipei. Emphsising that it is the biggest Chinese diocese in the world, she said that a former Vatican nuncio to Taiwan, Australian, Edward Cardinal Cassidy, once remarked “that the volume of work in Hong Kong diocese can be compared with seven dioceses in Taiwan.”

While the position of cardinal is not in itself a personal award, the elevation of a bishop to this rank is normally interpreted as a sign of approval from the pope. Sister Leung said that 74-year-old Bishop Zen has gained a high approval rating from the international community with his strong stands on human rights. “They have dubbed him the Chinese Bishop Tutu,” she explained, adding that he has won approval in Rome as well for standing up for Christian principles in a territory of China “which has a reputation for being authoritarian.” She thinks that this, together with his bridge-building work with the mainland Church, make him an ideal candidate for the position.

The College of Cardinals has two main functions. It is the body responsible for administering the Church in the lacuna period between the death of a pope and for electing a new one. Beyond that, it is an advisory body to the pope and considered to be his most intimate group of consulters.

Popes endeavour to include the broadest possible experience and knowledge in their closest and most trusted consultative body. With the retirement of the ageing Paul Cardinal Shan Kuo-hsi from Taiwan, there is now no active Chinese voice in its current make up. Sister Leung says that in the context of current negotiations for reconciliation between the Vatican and China, Bishop Zen, with his background, wide experiences in dealing with the mainland and his current position in Hong Kong, will bring a depth and penetrative insight into complicated issues that few in the Vatican could rival.

In the possible event of more normal relations being achieved between Beijing and the Holy See, Sister Leung also sees him as being a valuable Church resource in the on-going development of the Chinese Church.

A red hat for Hong Kong

Bishop Zen Ze-kiun has been awarded a “red hat” by the pope. The colour red has been associated with cardinals since the time of Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254). He decreed that cardinals should make a change to red as a sign of their office in 1246, in order to distinguish themselves from bishops who have traditionally used the colour scarlet.

The hat, or biretta—a square, made of non-flexible material with three leaves and a pompom—is a traditional part of a priest’s garb and black in colour. Although seldom seen on a priest today, we do see bishops wearing scarlet ones at formal celebrations of the Eucharist, and if the bishop is also a cardinal, he dons a red one. Hence, the red hat. In 1464, Paul II extended the red colour to include the zucchetto (skull cap) worn by a bishop during liturgical ceremonies.

In 1586, Pope Sixtus V set the maximum number of cardinals at 70, however, ultimately setting the number is a papal discretion and in 1958 Pope John XXIII broke the tradition and exceeded it. Paul VI added an age limit on participation in curia affairs and heading curia offices. He also included voting for a new pope in this directive and named the age of 80 as the cut off point.

He set a limit of 120 active cardinals and added the Oriental Patriarchs to the college in 1965.

Cardinals new and old

At the midday Angelus in the Vatican on February 22, Pope Benedict XVI announced the names of fifteen new cardinals who will be invested on March 25.

Bishop Zen, of Hong Kong, along with the Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales from Manila and Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, of Seoul, are the three cardinals-designate from Asia.

Venezuela’s Archbishop Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, of Bordeaux in France, Toledo’s Archbishop Antonio Canizares Llovera in Spain, Archbishop Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston in the United States of America, the Polish former secretary to John Paul II, Archbishop Stanislaus Dziwisz, of Krakow, two Italians, Archbishop Carlo Caffara, of Bologna, and Archbishop Andrea Cordero Montezemolo, and one from Ghana on the African continent, Archbishop Peter Dery are all on the list.

The other name included by the pope is Father Albert Vanhoye, a Belgium Jesuit and biblical scholar.

Hong Kong’s cardinal-designate will be only the sixth Chinese cardinal in history. He has been preceded by Thomas Cardinal Tian Keng-hsin of Beijing, who died in 1967, Paul Cardinal Yu Pin, who was ordained as bishop of Nanjing but later was vicar capitulator of Taipei in Taiwan. He died in 1978 during the conclave, electing Pope John Paul II. The late John Baptist Cardinal Wu Cheng-chung was the first cardinal in Hong Kong and died in 2002, while Paul Cardinal Shan Kuo-hsi of Taiwan retired recently. Shanghai’s Ignatius Cardinal Kung Pin-mei died in the United States of America in 2000, where he spent most of his life after release from prison.

Manila archbishop also on the list

Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, 73, was among the 12 named by Pope Benedict XVI to the College of Cardinals on February 22. Not known to be as outspoken on political matters as on social and moral issues, he has demonstrated great love for the poor.