Pope Francis Writes Letter to New Cardinals: You Express the Church’s Unity

Pope Francis in his letter encouraged the men to pray often, to love everyone, and to have mercy on the suffering.

“I thank you for your generosity and I assure you of my prayers that the title of ‘servant’ (deacon) will increasing eclipse that of ‘eminence,’” the pope told the future cardinals.

He also asked them to embody three attitudes the Argentinian poet Francisco Luis Bernárdez once used to describe St. John of the Cross: “eyes raised, hands joined, feet bare.”

“Eyes raised, because your service will require you to lengthen your gaze and broaden your heart, in order to see farther and to love more expansively and with greater fervor,” he said.

He quoted his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who said St. John of the Cross sat “at the school of his gaze,” which is “the pierced side of Christ.”

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Another important attitude, Francis said, is hands joined in prayer for discernment, “because what the Church most needs — together with the preaching of the Gospel — is your prayer to be able to shepherd well the flock of Christ.”

He added that to have bare feet means to be close to the difficult realities faced by people around the world, including “the pain and suffering due to war, discrimination, persecution, hunger, and many forms of poverty.”

“These will demand from you great compassion and mercy,” the pope said.

One of the cardinals-designate, retired apostolic nuncio Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, is already over the age of 80 and no longer eligible to vote in a future conclave.

Cardinal-designate Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, will turn 80 on Aug. 22 next year. Radcliffe is one of two spiritual leaders for the Synod on Synodality taking place this month in Rome.

Among the 21 new cardinals, a total of nine are currently in Rome to participate in the second session of the synod Oct. 2–27.

The full list of new cardinals can be read here.

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.