Following the death of Cardinal George Pell last January, Australia finds itself without a cardinal. In the latest 2023 Consistory announced by Pope Francis for the appointment of new cardinals, the 86-year-old pontiff elevated 21 men from various countries, including the United States, Italy, Argentina, South Africa, Spain, Colombia, South Sudan, Hong Kong, Poland, Malaysia, Tanzania, and Portugal. The biggest loser? Australia!
Currently, the three electors from Oceania come from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga, leaving Australia without representation. Among them, John Atcherley Dew now holds the title of Archbishop Emeritus of Wellington, while Tongan Soane Patita Paini Mafi is facing health issues that require an extended stay in Rome. Surprisingly, Monsignor Anthony Fisher, the metropolitan archbishop of Sydney and primate of Australia, who studied under Cardinal Pell, has not been granted the prestigious rank of cardinal.
An atheist speaking with Allora!’s editorial team noted, “The Catholic Church in Australia is perceived as too conservative. Its bishops, except perhaps Long in Parramatta, are seen as unwilling to break from tradition, and this is not the direction Francis intends to take the Church in his legacy. Clearly, this pontiff is a product of his own upbringing. He represents the Argentinian society of the latter half of the twentieth century. Many of the Church’s beliefs contradict the progressive attitudes favored by the Catholic Church in Latin America since the 1960s.”
The Catholic Church in Australia boasts over 5 million faithful, constituting almost 20% of the population, compared to just 500,000 in New Zealand, 15,000 in Papua New Guinea, and 17,000 in Tonga. However, even though Archbishop Fisher has been regarded as conservative by Roman circles and Bishop Long does not fully reflect the realistic desires and aspirations of the majority of Australian Catholics, Randazzo stands out as an unconventional rising star. He was recently elected as the President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania.
This month, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Anthony Randazzo as the new Apostolic Administrator of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, which caters to Anglicans wishing to return to the Catholic Church. Randazzo, who currently serves as the Bishop of Broken Bay, also possesses a background in canon law, having studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and worked for five years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Benedict XVI.
However, the absence of Australians in the latest consistory should come as no surprise. Francis is known for not elevating bishops from dioceses traditionally considered “important” for the universal church to the rank of cardinal. This includes Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan and other “colleagues” from prominent Italian cities such as Venice, Palermo, Naples, Turin, and Genoa. (Vannino Di Corma)
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