New Cardinals

Each year, February 22 is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and yesterday Pope Francis created 19 new Cardinals for the Church in service to the world.
This was the first Consistory held in the presence of 2 Popes! Benedict XVI - as Pope Emeritus - was at the Consistory along with Pope Francis! The Mass with the New Cardinals and Pope Francis was celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

One of the new Cardinals is Gerald Lacroix, the Archbishop of Quebec City which is the primal see (the first diocese) in Canada. Gerald Lacroix was born in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset, Quebec, July 27, 1957, the eldest son in a family of seven children. At the age of 8, his family settled in Manchester, N.H., where he attended the parochial elementary school of St. Anthony of Padua and Trinity High School. He studied one year at St. Anselm College in Manchester.
He joined the Pius X Secular Institute as a consecrated lay member in 1975, and made perpetual vows in 1982. The same year, he was named secretary-general of the institute. He earned a master’s degree in pastoral theology at Laval University, and from 1985 to 1987 directed the La Maison du Renouveau, a formation and Christian renewal center.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. From 1990 to 2000, he served as a missionary in Colombia, where he established several houses for the institute. After his return to Canada, he became director general of the institute in 2001.
In 2009, he was named a bishop and served as auxiliary bishop of Quebec until his promotion to archbishop in 2011.

Many of the Cardinals appointed by Francis are from the "Global South" - the developing world. The Archbishop of Port au Prince was named the first Cardinal ever from  Haiti.  Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes is from Managua, Nicaragua. 

Here is an interesting video from the Diocese depicting his departure for Rome. Neat Video! There is hope!
As we sign cards for the Development and Peace action campaign - a Voice for Justice, I keep these apointments to the College of Cardinals in mind.

Peace