Who are the new Brazilian cardinals appointed by Pope Francis

August 27, 2022

Robert

Pope Francis appointed two Brazilians as cardinals this Saturday (27), in a consistory that officially inaugurated 20 new religious in all.

The move helps consolidate a certain internationalization of the College of Cardinals, the body that helps the pontiff govern the Catholic Church — and defines the new pope when he leaves the post. as showed the Sheetthe ceremony and the events that follow it until Tuesday (30) are shrouded in firsts, question marks and buzz, amid rumors of a resignation by Francis.

In total, Brazil now has eight cardinals in the institution, with six electors of a new pontiff. Know who the chosen ones are.

Don Leonardo Steiner

Archbishop of Manaus since 2019, Dom Leonardo Steiner is considered the first “cardinal of the Amazon”. According to him, the choice of his name signals that Pope Francis is concerned about the forest and wants to bring the Catholic Church closer to the region. His appointment overthrew the holder of the Archdiocese of Belém, the oldest and most traditional in northern Brazil.

In a recent interview with Sheetthe archbishop said that President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) “loses his horizon” by encouraging mining in the Amazon and said that the president’s attitudes have left indigenous communities unprotected.

Steiner, 71, is the former secretary general of the CNBB (National Conference of Bishops of Brazil) and, at the institution, helped to mobilize religious for the renovation of the national headquarters, in Brasília.

Born in Forquilhinha (SC), he studied philosophy and theology in Petrópolis (RJ), between 1973 and 1978, when he was ordained a priest by his cousin Paulo Evaristo Arns.

The religious also has pedagogical training and has been a teacher. In the 1990s, he moved to Rome, where he earned a master’s and doctorate in philosophy. Upon returning to Brazil in the following decade, he began teaching the course in the interior of Paraná.

He was appointed bishop in 2005 by Pope John Paul II for the Prelature of São Félix do Araguaia (MT).

Don Paulo Cezar Costa

The other Brazilian who arrives at the College of Cardinals is Dom Paulo Cezar Costa, Archbishop of Brasília since 2020, the same year he joined the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Vatican, a position that brought him closer to the Pope.

Costa was born in Valença (RJ) in 1967. He holds a degree in Theology from the Higher Institute of Theology of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro and a Master’s and Doctorate in Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

In academic life, he was a professor at the Higher Institute of Theology of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro, at the São Bento Theological School and at the Theology Department at PUC-Rio, where he also served as coordinator and director.

He was ordained a priest in the early 1990s. In his ministry, he was parish vicar, parish priest and rector of the Paulo 6th Diocesan Seminary in Nova Iguaçu (RJ). He collaborated in the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) as a member of the expert group of the Episcopal Doctrine Commission.

In 2010, he was appointed by the then Pope Benedict 16 as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro. In addition to being Archbishop of Brasília, he is also a member of the Permanent Council of the CNBB.

“Pope Francis took us all by surprise by announcing my name on the list of cardinals,” he said in late May, shortly after the official ceremony. “The post of cardinal came with the pope’s kindness, in recognition of our work and our donation. I intend to continue serving and looking to Jesus Christ. He is the servant par excellence.”