Nine other Portuguese-speaking cardinals involved in process
For the first time since the College of Cardinals was created, Portugal has four cardinal electors in the conclave to choose Francis’ successor.
In addition to the four Portuguese cardinal electors, there are nine other Portuguese-speakers: seven Brazilians, one from Cabo Verde, and one from East Timor.
Lusa has given a brief profile of each of the Portuguese-speaking protagonists, while the government has declared three days of national mourning to honour the Pope’s passing.
The four Portuguese cardinals are: António Augusto dos Santos Marto, the oldest of the four, a former bishop of Viseu and Leiria-Fatima, born in 1947, he was ordained a priest in Rome in 1971.
Closely linked to the Catholic student and labour movements, he worked in factories before the April 25 Revolution and maintained a strong connection with Portuguese emigrants.
After having been a professor at the Portuguese Catholic University and a parish priest in various places in the Diocese of Porto, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Braga in 2000, and thereafter diocesan head of Viseu. His recurring themes centred on peace and the environment.
Américo Aguiar, the youngest Portuguese cardinal, aged just 51, was elevated by Pope Francis two years ago, shortly after World Youth Day, an organisation he presided over. He has already described the effect of the Pope’s passing today as the “profound sadness” of a son who loses the presence of his father.
Manuel Clemente, was one of Pope Francis’ first appointments. He has been a cardinal for ten years, and to a large extent his legacy was tainted by the ‘scandal’ of sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church.
Tolentino de Mendonça, is the fourth cardinal, originally from Madeira – a theologian who combined his role in the Catholic Church with that of a university lecturer/ writer and poet.
The Brazilian Cardinal Electors are Franciscan Jaime Spengler (64), considered a progressive leader; João Braz de Aviz, 77, also considered progressive (to the point that his doctrine of liberation theology was condemned by the Vatican in the 1980s and 1990s); Leonardo Ulrich Steiner who works in missionary structures for the indigenous people of the Amazon; Odilo Pedro Scherer, 75, who was seen as one of the strongest names in Latin America to succeed Benedict XVI in 2013; Orani Tempesta – the only Cistercian cardinal in the conclave; Paulo Cezar Costa (57), the current archbishop of Brasilia, and Sérgio da Rocha, 65 – the only Portuguese-speaking member of the Council of Cardinals.
Cabo Verde’s cardinal is Arlindo Gomes Furtado, 75 years old and East Timor’ s is Virgílio do Carmo, 57.
Source material: LUSA
