Created a cardinal in the consistory of August 2022, Adalberto Martínez Flores became the first cardinal in Paraguayan history. He says that when Pope Francis appeared on the balcony of the Apostolic Palace to announce the names of the new cardinals, he did not believe the news. Martínez had already heard things like this before and thought it was fake news.
POPE FRANCIS
...and on Saturday, August 27, I will hold a Consistory for the creation of new Cardinals.
Six months after his appointment, Cardinal Martínez has visited Rome several times: to promote the canonization of a Paraguayan blessed, to visit the Basilica San Giovanni a Porta Latina and to attend the funeral of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. The Cardinal sees his appointment as something for all of Paraguay.
CARD. ADALBERTO MARTÍNEZ FLORES
As the Holy Father said so well when he gave me the biretta on August 27, the appointment was a tribute to Paraguay, to the Paraguayan people. And I felt that way too—that this appointment is a recognition not really for myself but for the faith of a people—a people that 475 years ago created the first diocese of the Rio de la Plata with the center as the city of Asunción.
Cardinal Martínez says that the country celebrated the diocese's creation and that Pope Francis has sent messages to the Paraguayan people encouraging dialogue and unity. He also underlines the Pope's concern for people on the peripheries. When he was elected to the papacy in 2013, Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with these people.
POPE FRANCIS
It was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one...but here we are.
CARD. ADALBERTO MARTÍNEZ FLORES
He came from the peripheries. And I really believe that the heart of the Holy Father is a universal heart, in the sense that he has a very special concern for those on the peripheries. He can bring several countries together.
Two of those countries are East Timor and Mongolia. Before Pope Francis, neither had a cardinal. But following the August 2022 consistory, that all changed. Cardinal Martínez says that he met with these new cardinals prior to the consistory.
CARD. ADALBERTO MARTÍNEZ FLORES
There was an opportunity, although very brief, to meet with them. I think that the important thing, and, I understand this at least as a cardinal, to have been considered by the Holy Father to be part of the College of Cardinals, is to work for unity and communion among us, whatever the subject may be.
We realize that the Gospel is for all latitudes.
With the appointment of this first Paraguayan Cardinal, Pope Francis furthers his efforts to form a College of Cardinals more similar to the Catholics in the world. By the end of 2023, the number of Italian cardinal electors will be reduced by half and many believe there will be more and more cardinals from the ends of the earth.
RM
TR: KG
