Vatican City. “I am pleased to announce that on June 29 I will hold a Consistory for the appointment of 14 new cardinals” Pope Francis said today, May 20, 2018, during the Regina Coeli at St. Peter’s Square. Among the 14 is our brother, Fr. Aquilino Bocos Merino, CMF.
Fr. Aquilino was born on May 17, 1938 in Canillas de Esgueva, Spain. He took his First Profession on August 15, 1956 and his final vows on the same that of the year 1959. He was ordained priest on May 23, 1963 in Salamanca, Spain. Our Congregation had him as our Superior General from 1991-2003. During his governance, he carried out an implementation of the missionary service of the Word in the New Evangelization, expanding the Congregation to new frontiers, mainly in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, and emphasized efforts to qualify both the initial and ongoing formation of all the Claretians.
Between 1991 and 2003 he was a member of the Council of the Union of Superiors General (re-elected for four triennia) and from 1991 to 1997 he was a member of the Council of the 16 of the CICLSAL. He participated in the Synod on the Consecrated Life of 1994; in the II Special Assembly of Bishops for Europe in 1999 and at the Eleventh Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2002. Moreover, he was appointed in 1994 by John Paul II as member of the Congregation for Religious, and confirmed for another five years in 1999.
The other nominated Cardinals are Msgr. Raphael Sako, Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, Msgr. Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Msgr. Angelo De Donatis, Vicar of Rome, Msgr. Giovanni Angelo Becciu, substitute of the Secretary of State, Msgr. Konrad Krajewski, papal almsgiver, Msgr. Joseph Coutts, Archbishop of Karachi, Msgr. Antonio Augusto dos Santos Marto, Bishop of Fatima, Msgr. Giuseppe Petrocchi, Archbishop of L’Aquila, Msgr. Pedro Barreto, Archbishop of Huancayo (Peru), Msgr. Desiré Tsarahazana, Archbishop of Toamasina (Madagascar), Msgr. Thomas Aquinas Manyo, Archbishop of Osaka (Japan), Msgr. Sergio Obeso Rivera, Archbishop emeritus of Xalapa (Mexico), and Msgr. Toribio Ticona Porco, Prelate Emeritus of Corocoro (Bolivia).
Vatican News: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-05/pope-francis-new-cardinals-angelus.html
