Vidal to mark 25th year as a cardinal

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Archbishop Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal will celebrate the silver anniversary of his elevation to the cardinalship on Tuesday.

A solemn pontifical mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, which will be attended by Archbishops and Bishops from all over the country, with Cardinal Vidal himself as main celebrant.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales will deliver the homily. Archbishop Eduard Joseph Adams, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, is expected to give a congratulatory message during the mass.

A luncheon will follow at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel immediately after the mass wherein the prelate’s biography will be launched. A film showing the highlights of Cardinal Vidal’s life and ministry will also be shown during the luncheon.

A day prior to the 25th anniversary celebration of Cardinal Vidal’s elevation to the College of Cardinals, members of the clergy and religious of the Archdiocese of Cebu will hold a solemn vesper at 6:00 p.m. which will be followed by a cultural presentation at 8:00 p.m. all at the Cathedral. 

Twenty five years ago on May 25, 1985, Cardinal Vidal received the “red hat” of the cardinalship in Rome from then Pope John Paul II during a consistory of the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Vidal was the fourth Filipino cleric to be given such high ecclesiastical title. The other Filipino Cardinals were Rufino Cardinal Santos, Julio R. Cardinal Rosales, Vidal’s predecessor and Jaime Cardinal Sin, who succeeded Cardinal Santos as Archbishop of Manila.

After Cardinal Vidal, two other Filipinos joined the college. They are Jose Cardinal Sanchez who was appointed to a top Vatican office but has since retired, and currently Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.

Of the 28 cardinals appointed during the 1985 consistory, only Cardinal Vidal remains in the active pastoral ministry because Pope Benedict XVI extended his term in 2006.

He was supposed to retire in 2006 upon reaching the age of 75 but the Vatican deferred his retirement for four years already.

One of the highlights of his membership in the College of Cardinals was his participation in the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 following the death of the late Pope John Paul II.

The Cardinal’s silver anniversary celebration came in the wake of the year-long celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the establishment of the Archdiocese of Cebu, which concluded last April 28, 2010.(FREEMAN NEWS)