After the Angelus, on Sunday, October 25, 2020, Pope Francis announced the creation as Cardinal of Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the Papal Household Preacher.
Father Cantalamessa will receive the Cardinal’s hat at the forthcoming Consistory in Rome on November 28, along with 12 other Cardinals, among them, nine Electors and four Non-Electors, older than 80.
Father Raniero Cantalamessa
Father Cantalamessa was born in Colli del Tronto, Ascoli Piceno, Italy, on July 22, 1934. Ordained priest in 1958, he graduated in Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and in Classical Literature from the Catholic University of Milan.
As Titular Professor of History of the Christian Origins and Director of the Religious Sciences Department of Milan’s University of the Sacred Heart, he was a member of the International Theological Commission from 1975 to 1981 and, for two years, was a member of the Catholic Delegation for Dialogue with the Pentecostal Churches.
Papal Household Preacher
In 1979 he left teaching to dedicate himself full time to the Ministry of the Word. John Paul II appointed him Papal Household Preacher in 1980; Benedict XVI confirmed him in this office in 2005 and Pope Francis in 2013.
Every week in Advent and Lent Father Cantalamessa preaches a meditation in the presence of the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Prelates, and Superiors General of Religious Orders.
He is asked to speak in many countries around the world, often also by brothers of other Christina denominations. He received a Doctorate Honoris Causa in Law from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana; in Communication Sciences from the University of Macerata and in Theology from Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio.
In addition to the scientific books written as historian of the Christian Origins, on the Fathers’ Christology, the Easter of Resurrection in the Ancient Church, and other subjects, he has published many works on spirituality, the fruit of his preaching in the Pontifical Household, which have been translated into some twenty languages.
