Cardinal Arinze to police worship after high-level Vatican reshuffle

BY CHRISTINA WHITE
A HIGH-level reshuffle of Vatican posts has ensured traditionalist control of key Church congregations and will guarantee the creation of a second English cardinal next year.
Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze , 69, has been promoted to Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, replacing Chilean Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, 75, who has retired.
The move, confirmed by the Vatican last week, is described as "very significant" and places the Cardinal in the frontline for ongoing negotiations with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).
Cardinal Arinze, who is regarded in Church circles as conservative, speaks excellent English and will seek good relations with the newlyreformed commission.
The Cardinal's deputy at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, English Bishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, was named as his replacement as head of the council. The appointment automatically confers the title of archbishop and following Vatican protocol it is likely that Archbishop Fitzgerald will receive the red hat next year.
The appointment of Walsallborn Archbishop Fitzgerald, the most senior Englishman in the Roman curia, was warmly welcomed at the Vatican. The new archbishop has spoken of his desire to improve relations with Islam and specialised in Christian/ Muslim relations while studying theology. He lectured at the Pontifical Insti tute of Arabic and Islamic studies in Rome and is seen as an ideal candidate to promote dialogue at a time of crisis between the West and Islam.
In another high-ranking promotion, Archbishop Renato Martino was appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, succeeding the late Vietnamese Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan who died last month. Archbishop Martino, 69, has been the papal representative to the United Nations since 1986 and has had an increasingly high-profile over the last six months, putting forward the Church's position on human cloning, human rights abuses and the threat of conflict with Iraq.
The Holy Father also accepted the resignation of Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan as president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See and appointed Bishop Attilio Nicora, emeritus Bishop of Verona, as his replacement. The title carries archiepiscopal rank. The Pope is expected to make other minor appointments before holding a consistory to create new cardinals.
Cardinal Arinze has the task of overseeing a new English translation of the Mass at a time when ICEL's efforts have been criticised as inaccurate.
The Conservative Party leader lain Duncan Smith this week voiced his criticism of Catholic liturgy as "doggerel" and "not very uplifting". Mr Duncan Smith, a Catholic, told The Daily Telegraph he thought the Catholic Church had gone from "dog-Latin to dog-English".