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Saturday Sep 20, 2025
Saturday Sep 20, 2025
It's (probably) 92AD, and Pope Anacletus (or Cletus) has "fallen asleep in the hope of the Resurrection", possibly martyred. Up next is the second most famous Roman bishop of the Apostolic age, Pope Clement. But how did we get there?Support Popeular History: patreon.com/popeularCheck out Pontifacts: https://pontifacts.podbean.com/
Thursday Oct 30, 2025
Thursday Oct 30, 2025
It's (around) 99AD, and Pope Clement has been dramatically martyred after overseeing the construction of a lot of churches on the coast of the Black Sea. What do you do when you don't have anyone hand-picked by Peter? Surely, the end is near!
Wednesday Nov 19, 2025
Wednesday Nov 19, 2025
Hello everyone,I’m not a huge fan of these sort of admin episodes, but there’s enough going on I figure it’ll be worth it. So here’s an update on three fronts: first, the upcoming consistory, which may be on your radar already since you listen to my show, second, what’s been going on at the USCCB this past week, and third, some show updates, including something I’ve put together to feel a bit better about having these admin updates periodically.So first, CONSISTORY
Those of you already familiar with the word will know why it grabbed my attention earlier in the month, when various sources announced that Pope Leo was calling the Cardinals together for a consistory in January of next year. You see, it was a consistory that threw a wrench onto my daily show plans in 2023, and in 2024 it was another consistory that sent me back into a hiatus I’m still recovering from.
For those not in the know already, a consistory is a meeting of the Cardinals of the Catholic Church, a group so particular they have multiple terms even for their administrative meetings, the other being a conclave, and which, well, if you’re listening to this, I’m just going to assume you’re already familiar with the idea of a conclave, if only because that’s what I spent most of my air time covering the first half of this year. So enough about conclaves. Those are different from consistories.
The type of consistory that gets me scrambling when I see the word is a consistory for the creation of new cardinals. The consistory that showed up on our radars earlier this month shows no particular signs of being one of those, though stranger things have happened and I’m fully expecting Pope Leo to hand out some red hats and titles sometime in 2026. I just don’t think it’ll be at this promised January 8th meeting, since that’s usually included in the description—often with names—right from the start when we’ve got that on the docket.
Don’t be disappointed though—we can still expect this to be an extraordinary consistory, and not least because “extraordinary consistory” is the technical term for this specific type of consistory and I enjoy punning with ya’ll. You see, an “extraordinary” consistory is when the Pope calls together all the Catholic Cardinals around the world for a meet-up in Rome, as opposed to an ordinary consistory, which is typically just a meeting of the Cardinals resident in the Eternal City, which are generally unremarkable enough that they don’t get reported on, unless he’s creating new Cardinals. Oh, and by the way, I kind of had a hunch about this but this research is where I first confirmed Cardinals are actually *required* to live in Rome unless they’re serving out and about as a diocesan bishop somewhere. Which makes sense given their role as an advisory body for the Pope. It’s clear there are exceptions—the Argentine Capuchin priest Cardinal Dri, may he rest in peace, died in Buenos Aires a few months ago. He’s the one Pope Francis elevated at the age of 96 in 2023, we did an episode about him. Nor are such exceptions particularly new–Saint John Henry Newman, who Pope Leo recently proclaimed as a Doctor of the Church, became a Cardinal late in life and travelled to the Eternal City for the occasion but continued to reside in England.All right, enough about what older Cardinals get up to. How common are these extraordinary consistories?Well, these meetings are unusual, but not unheard of. According to the incredible Gabriel Chow of GCatholic.org, Pope Saint John Paul II held seven of them, all but one within a few months of him creating a batch of new Cardinals, something he tended to do every three years. It seems like he got Cardinals on his mind and liked to both create new ones and catch up with the old ones as a group in the same general stretch. Cardinal season, if you will.A lot of the reporting on this upcoming consistory notes that Pope Benedict, JPII’s successor, never held an extraordinary consistory, and that might technically be true if we’re only counting things officially declared “extraordinary consistories”, but GCatholic disagrees, counting the meetings of cardinals held the night before his first creations of new Cardinals as extraordinary consistories. I’m not sold on that interpretation, as from what I’ve seen those gatherings were not as well attended as a typical extraordinary consistory would be, since again, those are mandatory. But they did seem to be private affairs of the Cardinals, which is one of the hallmarks of extraordinary consistories and another factor that distinguishes them from ordinary consistories, at least as far as the Code of Canon Law is concerned. Put a pin in that.Also, even though, yeah, it was officially a pretty minor meeting, the consistory where Pope Benedict announced that he was going to be resigning the Papacy–yeah– I mean–wasn’t officially an “extraordinary consistory”, but it was an *extraordinary* consistory.
As for Pope Francis, most of the coverage agreed he held two extraordinary consistories: one in 2014, with the topic of the family, which was part of the ramp up to Amoris Laetitia where communion for divorced Catholics was the apparent hot-button subtext. He also held one in 2022, where they discussed the new Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium. If that’s not ringing a bell, that’s the one where pretty much every Vatican department got renamed to a Dicastery. If it’s still not ringing a bell, don’t worry about it. For what it’s worth, both of these were either right before or right after new batches of Cardinals were made. I think if I got made a Cardinal the day *after* a two-day closed-door meeting of all the Cardinals I’d feel a little bit left out. Though maybe the Cardinals who formally joined the body just in time to hear two days of explanations of that new Constitution changing all the department names would have preferred to have been left out of that one. Either way, GCatholic counts a third Extraordinary Consistory for Pope Francis, a two-day affair right before he made a batch of new Cardinals in 2015. But like the ones GCatholic reported as happening in Pope Benedict’s pontificate, this gathering didn’t have all the Cardinals–or at least it didn’t have enough Cardinals around that it had a “mandatory for everyone” vibe like an extraordinary consistory is supposed to. According to Catholic News Agency, 148 cardinals made an appearance, and because I’m the sort of nerd I am, I can tell you that that was out of a full college of 212 at the time, and yes that includes disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien, because he never renounced the Cardinalate itself, only renouncing the rights and privileges associated with it, and it also incidentally includes Mr. Theodore McCarrick, who would go on to renounce the Cardinalate in later years and would wind up deservedly laicized, but who was still a Cardinal at this stage.You probably didn’t need me to mention all that, but just in case, there you have it.It’s worth noting that one of the reported topics during the 2025 conclave, at least during the meetings in the leadup to the conclave, was frustration from the Cardinals over a general lack of consultation of the Pope with the College of Cardinals as a whole, i.e. they wanted more extraordinary consistories. I wouldn’t be too shocked if we saw such gatherings in say, January and June, fit in between the end of Christmas and the beginning of Lent and around the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, respectively, become a regular thing, if Pope Leo does want to lean into these big extraordinary consistories being a regular thing.
Now, it’s fun and all to hear reports that the expected meeting is a response to popular demand by the Cardinals, but what will it actually be about? Why is Pope Leo apparently calling a closed-door meeting of all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church?
Well, first off, despite all my talk, and despite a lot of other people’s talk, no such meeting has actually been called yet. What we have at this stage is a letter that went out from the Secretariat of State stating that “Holy Father Leo XIV has in mind to convene an Extraordinary Consistory for the days of January 7 and 8, 2026.” Which, admittedly, is pretty straightforward, and is coming from an official source. But Pope Leo having that “in mind” is not the same as actually announcing it, which matters because the letter goes on to state that “In due course, the Dean of the College of Cardinals will send to Your Eminence the relevant letter with further details”. In other words, watch this space. And yes, it’s entirely possible that “further details” could still include noting that by the way while everyone is in town Pope Leo’s going to create some more new Cardinals too. I don’t expect that since my read on him is he’s going to want to be more respectful of the official 120-elector cap than his predecessor was, but it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve covered multiple items while the Cardinals were gathered. It’s probably more efficient from a travel cost perspective, anyhow.By the way, if they DO create more new Cardinals, it won’t be right after the Extraordinary Consistory On An Unknown Topic, because Pope Leo is already booked for the next day, when he is due for his annual meeting with diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, followed by him meeting with all the ambassadors from the 184 states that have full diplomatic relations with the Holy See. With that context–while recognizing those are regular annual meetings so it could be a coincidence–I am tempted to think there *will* be something big Pope Leo hopes to talk about with all the Cardinals and then all the diplomats. Maybe something going back to my hope–and the hope of many–on Catholic-Orthodox relations, some fruit of Pope Leo’s visit to Turkey to mark the 1700th anniversary of Nicea later this month, a council which Catholics and Orthodox agree on, and which helped set the date of Easter. To speculate one step yet further, if they were looking at something relating to the dating of Easter, the timing would be pretty good, a few months out.
***To complicate matters further, *** the day *before* the expected Extraordinary Consistory, Pope Leo will be closing the Holy Doors to finish out the Holy Year. So yeah, that date’s booked too, unless he wants to multitask, which given all he’s got going on, he doesn’t seem opposed to doing.
*** IN THE END, it’s likely the bulk of the discussion will be the fruit of the “study groups” that came out of the Synod on Synodality, which are meant to reach some form of consensus on a number of active topics discussed over the course of the synod during the last few years. The study groups are so idiosyncratic and generally wonkish that even I, who love listing off obscure stuff at you, refuse to go through them in detail, but they contain are hot button issues such as women deacons and polygamy alongside, uh, cold-button topics such as canon law and the role of nuncios, although I suppose it depends on what you’re into.
Anyways, it’s worth noting that—following what has proven to be a pattern for the Synod on Synodality with extension after extension—the end-of-the-year “deadline” for the study groups doesn’t seem to be a hard deadline and at least some of the study group discussions may well still be ongoing past the time of the Extraordinary Consistory, so really, who knows? Again, time will tell.***
Ok, time for the second promised topic: the USCCB, that is, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They had one of their Plenary or General assemblies this week–I believe they use the word interchangeably–-which, now that you’re hip to consistory talk you can think of Plenary Assemblies as the US Catholic Bishops’ version of an extraordinary consistory with everyone gathered to chat about whatever. In this case, a major order of business was the election of new leadership, especially a new USCCB President and Vice-President.When it comes to the USCCB, often the Vice-Presidency is the real election to watch, since unless they’ve hit retirement age the Vice President usually gets elected the President after putting in their three-year term as VP. But in this case, both President and Vice President were retiring, so this was one of the more open election years, with ten candidates nominated by their peers, including Bishop Barron of the Word on Fire media empire which will be printing breviaries for Americans in the coming years–more on that lucrative endeavor some other time.In the end, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City was elected USSB President, and will serve in that capacity until 2028 when, if tradition holds, he will be succeeded by the man who was runner-up this time around, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas. We’ll see if tradition does hold, as it’s not really a secret that US politics is deeply divided and the shift would be from a perceived conservative to a perceived liberal if that’s the way it goes, although yes, both are Catholic bishops so there’s a lot of agreement between the two.One bishop who was not particularly agreeing with the rest of the body present was the emeritus bishop of Tyler, Texas, one Joseph Strickland. I’ve discussed Bishop Strickland here and there, and he seems interested in continuing to pop up, despite his removal from his see a couple years ago after publicly endorsing a video calling Pope Francis a “diabolically disordered clown”. In any case, he is apparently still part of the USCCB–which makes sense as he’s still a bishop, though I’m not going to act like I expected him there. From what I can tell, since he’s officially an emeritus bishop, he does not get to vote. But he did have some floor time, and used it to try to add condemning Fr James Martin’s outreach to LGBT folks to the docket, a plea which went unanswered. There’s video of this online if you want to find it, and sure, a link in the notes for your convenience.Don’t get the wrong idea though, the bishops actually have been pretty active since the new USCCB President took up his role, on the one hand banning gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals, something which I honestly was surprised wasn’t already done, and on the other hand speaking up pretty loudly about all the deporting going on around here. It’s the latter topic I’m going to focus on for today, no offense to my friends who might love a word on the former, but I’m trying to stay positive, you know? Plus there’s more meat on the immigration side of the discussion, specifically my favorite thing: a statement short enough to read in its entirety for ya’ll.Yes, for the first time in over a decade–since their Special Message on the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act–the Bishops overwhelmingly voted in support of releasing the following Special Message, and by overwhelmingly I mean 216-5 with three abstentions. Without further ado:“As pastors, we the bishops of the United States are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.
Despite obstacles and prejudices, generations of immigrants have made enormous contributions to the well-being of our nation. We as Catholic bishops love our country and pray for its peace and prosperity. For this very reason, we feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.
Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of good will work together.
We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good. Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks.
The Church’s teaching rests on the foundational concern for the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). As pastors, we look to Sacred Scripture and the example of the Lord Himself, where we find the wisdom of God’s compassion. The priority of the Lord, as the Prophets remind us, is for those who are most vulnerable: the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger (Zechariah 7:10). In the Lord Jesus, we see the One who became poor for our sake (2 Corinthians 8:9), we see the Good Samaritan who lifts us from the dust (Luke 10:30–37), and we see the One who is found in the least of these (Matthew 25). The Church’s concern for neighbor and our concern here for immigrants is a response to the Lord’s command to love as He has loved us (John 13:34).
To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering, since, when one member suffers, all suffer (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26). You are not alone!
We note with gratitude that so many of our clergy, consecrated religious, and lay faithful already accompany and assist immigrants in meeting their basic human needs. We urge all people of good will to continue and expand such efforts.
We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials. In this dialogue, we will continue to advocate for meaningful immigration reform.
As disciples of the Lord, we remain men and women of hope, and hope does not disappoint! (cf. Romans 5:5)
May the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe enfold us all in her maternal and loving care and draw us ever closer to the heart of Christ.”
Alright, now for the final topic, PODCAST ADMIN.Assuming you’ve been around for a minute, you’ve probably noticed that Popeular History is approximately eight projects in a trenchcoat. You might think that sounds like an exaggeration, but I did wind up with 8 tabs when I organized all my episodes i nto a spreadsheet I plan to use as a roadmap for the show. The Cardinal Numbers tab even has info about the Cardinals in question from my cardinals database. Not all the Cardinals, mind you, for now it’s focused on the current cardinals since that’s where the show is focused. Eventually the full database will be made public-facing in some form, minus perhaps some embarrassing scribbled notes like instructions on how to pronounce names that will only make sense to me since I’m bad at phonetic alphabet stuff. Oh, and the Worldbuilding section has the epitomes next to links to the episodes they’re summarizing! Cool stuff like that, and as an added bonus I’ll even be putting things like when I expect to get to the next episode or two of a particular series, that way if you want an answer it’s there without relying on me randomly mentioning on the show at some point. I’m even including notes about things like when I have something recorded and am just working on editing it. So that’s all exciting! Check it out!–I’m putting that link at the tail end of the show notes for your convenience. It should be publicly accessible, let me know via email to popeularhistory@gmail.com if you hit any snags.Also, jubilation! Popeularhistory.com is back up, and I have no idea how that happened. My ability to make changes to it directly went away about a year ago, hence all but the RSS feeds being frozen, zombie mode, but now it’s back. I didn’t even have to log in to anything. I think St Carlo Acutis just did another miracle (miracles effect from Pontifacts). So that’s an unexpected plus that literally only came up when I googled up the name of my old host as part of an explanation that the spreadsheet I just described was going to replace the website moving forward. I guess it isn’t? We’ll see–I am very confused, I was already prepared to move on–but I’m not mad about it.Finally, one more last-minute thing has popped up. Our hero, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, will be visiting Detroit December 4th through 7th, raising funds for the struggling Christian remnant in the Holy Land. Detroit is a manageable trip from my home base in Ohio (go Bucks) and I’d love to meet Pierbattista Pizzaballa. But I don’t plan to crash Pierbattista Pizzaballa’s fundraising trip emptyhanded. And so, I’ve created a gofundme to raise money so I can give Pierbattista Pizzaballa a real check for a grand in addition to a comedically oversized check made by my children, which I’m sure Pierbattista Pizzaballa will really truly appreciate as a Franciscan friar. Obviously December 4th through 7th is soon, so act now via the link in the show notes if you’d like to contribute to what is already my most successful fundraiser to date. And don’t worry if you miss the deadline, I still intend to forward funds to him and his cause as appropriate, whatever way I can. Full disclosure: I’m setting aside $200 of the funds for travel expenses for me getting there, and giant check. Thank you in advance and remember: prayer support is just as welcome and is even more important than financial support.Alright, that’s all for tonight! November’s Habemus Pointsam is coming out soon, I just need to edit it! Of course, you already knew that, because you saw it on the database, right?Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!LINKS:
Early reporting on upcoming extraordinary consistory:https://www.americamagazine.org/vatican-dispatch/2025/11/08/pope-leo-to-call-college-of-cardinals-to-rome-for-a-two-day-january-meeting/
https://thecatholicherald.com/article/pope-leo-to-call-cardinals-to-rome-for-extraordinary-consistory-amid-speculation-of-first-encyclical
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-to-convene-extraordinary-consistory-of-cardinals-in-january-report/?utm_source=lsncathfb&fbclid=IwY2xjawN_jjJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR7SwHBdI9sPFNkrmLzutgXvu6eUyuUQPNbHpBxEEej8S63RLNA83qCYOPDyqQ_aem_kfnzrdO3vyL7EE2rqlgcWg
https://www.ncregister.com/news/pope-leo-calls-january-2026-consistory
Gcatholic.org consistory notes:
https://gcatholic.org/documents/tag/consistory
CNA Reporting on 2015 consistory:https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/31501/a-reform-to-promote-harmony-%E2%80%93-pope-francis-opens-a-much-debated-consistory
Bishop Strickland at the USCCB:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OU0i97XFTlw USCCB Special Message:https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/us-bishops-issue-special-message-immigration-plenary-assembly-baltimore
Popeular History Episode Spreadsheet link (feel free to share, this should give public access)https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17NFWcln6CA8yjH96-bORP2G3HA2ct331E6Zi880BewU/edit?usp=sharing
Pizzaballa Trip Gofundme:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-gregg-bring-pierbattista-pizzaballa-a-giant-check?fbclid=IwY2xjawOKzAVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80MDk5NjI2MjMwODU2MDkAAR4IokJTnLt5tbazv1IuHqeQowX8-horhHZ0HRkHo5beXwCliQi3avOZ4LXDaA_aem_Lsc6fiO4LRUoTq6WizJ3fQ
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
It's 107ishAD, and Pope Evaristus has either been beheaded or thrown to wild beasts. Who wants to be Pope next? Meanwhile, the titular churches are emerging... maybe?
Wednesday Dec 31, 2025
Wednesday Dec 31, 2025
It's 115ishAD, and Pope Alexander died somehow. Perhaps vaguely martyred? But probably not. That was probably another Alexander. There were a lot of Alexanders in the Hellenistic world because reasons. Anyways, who wants to be Pope next? And how far will Gregg go to get names of cardinals?**Answer: "Very"
Thursday Jan 29, 2026
Thursday Jan 29, 2026
At long last!Also, check out intelligentspeechonline.com to register for the Intelligent Speech Conference, which is happening Feb 28th this year.Podcast progress link for future visibility: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17NFWcln6CA8yjH96-bORP2G3HA2ct331E6Zi880BewU/edit?usp=sharing
2 days ago
2 days ago
IMAGE CREDIT: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile from Santiago, Chile, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
LINKS:
Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:
https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bchga.html
Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB on Gcatholic.org:
https://gcatholic.org/p/8844
2023 Vatican Biographical Summary of Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB (Italian):
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/10/25/321025d.html
Chilean Bishops’ Conference 2023 bio of Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB (Spanish):
https://iglesiadeconcepcion.cl/noticias/monsenor-fernando-chomali-ha-sido-nombrado-arzobispo-de-santiago/
2016 Revised statutes of the Pontifical Academy for Life (Italian):
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/11/05/161105b.html
2018 BBC coverage of the Father Karadima case through the eyes of one of his victims, James Hamilton:
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45486176
2010 NY Times coverage of the Father Karadima case:
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/world/americas/28chile.html
2010 The Media Project coverage of Father Karadima case:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165612/http://themediaproject.org/article/chile-wrestles-religion-and-impunity
2014 NCR coverage of Father Karadima
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/chilean-cardinals-close-pope-stained-abuse-cover-ups
2018 24 Horas report on church membership and trust (Spanish):
https://www.24horas.cl/papafranciscoenchile/cifra-de-chilenos-que-se-declaran-catolicos-bajo-desde-73-a-45-en-la-ultima-decada-2612241
2015 NCR coverage of the controversy over Bishop Barros’ appointment:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/controversial-chilean-bishops-appointment-continues-divide-diocese
2015 Huffington Post coverage of Bishop Barros controversy:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/backlash-against-chilean_b_6955290/amp
Voice of America coverage of Pope Francis’ trip to Chile:
https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-wraps-up-latin-america-trip/4217547.html
Firebombings:
https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Update-3-churches-firebombed-in-Chile-during-pope-visit-469520773.html?outputType=amp
2018 BBC coverage of the mass resignation of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44442233
More via NCR:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/francis-accepts-two-more-chilean-bishops-resignations-continuing-abuse-fallout
More via NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618825779/pope-francis-accepts-resignations-of-3-bishops-over-chilean-abuse-scandal
More via Religionnews.com:
https://religionnews.com/2018/08/03/will-pope-francis-solve-the-abuse-crisis/
December 2024 The Pillar interview:
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/speed-dating-the-new-cardinals-could
Cardinal Garib Washing His Shirt:https://www.instagram.com/reels/DJR_m0xgCsT/
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello everyone, welcome to Cardinal Numbers, a rexypod reviewing and ranking all the Cardinals of the Catholic Church from the Catacombs to Kingdom Come.One thing that I’ll always remember about the end of my daily show experience is that one accompanying factor was the start of a war. It can be hard to keep at things when you’re feeling down, and war had broken out in the Middle East the day I broke my streak of over 100 daily episodes. That’s on my mind again because today’s Cardinal is of Palestinian descent, and another war broke out today. So before we move on, I want to endorse both working for peace and praying for peace. Goodness knows we need to do all we can, and that we need all the help we can get.
Also, before we get into things, please note that this episode was basically the one that sealed the deal on me going into my most recent hiatus. It took more research than expected because of the number of serious accusations adjacent to the story of our Cardinal of the day. Arguably I *could* have told most of future Cardinal Chomalí’s story without getting into the Karadima case and subsequent Barros controversy, but that would have taken a lot of intentional sidelining of topics that unfortunately need to be front and center regardless of how controversial they are. Dozens of times we’ve seen the consequences of downplaying or sidelining such things, and I don’t intend to contribute to that. If Cardinal Chomalí goes to the next round, I promise more of the focus will be on his own life and less on the dung he found himself shoveling.
And now for the official warning: please note that this episode includes extensive discussion of scandal caused by the sexual abuse of minors and coverups. Listener discretion is advised.
Today we’re looking at our fifth bishop from the list of new Cardinals Pope Francis elevated on December 7th 2024–his last consistory for the creation of new Cardinals.
Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB, who describes himself as a descendent of a Palestinian, was born on March 10, 1957 in Santiago, Chile, the capital and largest city basically in the middle of the almost comically long country along South America’s Pacific coast. Fernando is one of our late blooming vocations–his first degree was in Civil Engineering, though admittedly it was from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, which does host a seminary, though presumably our civil engineer didn’t go through that side of things. Instead, when Fernando did decide to go to seminary and study theology and philosophy and such, it was through the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago, a storied institution in the suburbs.
Enter the B plot for today, because in 1984, the same year Fernando entered seminary, a group of parishioners reported the “improper conduct” of another I cannot emphasize enough quite different Fernando, Father Fernando Karadima. The report was made to the Archbishop of Santiago, a man whose name I will not trouble you with because this is going to be an episode with a lot of names as-is and he’ll get his own episode in time.
Allegedly the letter containing the report was “torn up and thrown away”, in any event nothing came of it at the time. The Archbishop’s secretary, Juan Barros, possibly already Father Barros by this stage, was a protege of Karadima and would later wind up accused of helping cover up Father Karadima’s crimes, and this is not the last time we will see him, so keep that name in mind. To recap, we have Father Karadima, a powerfully connected child rapist, potential Father Barros, a fan of Father Karadima and an alleged enabler, and not-yet Father Chomalí, our Cardinal of the day, who isn’t connected to our B-Plot yet, so let’s move his side of things forward and see how this plays out.
In 1991, after seven years of study on top of his engineering degree, Franando Chomalí was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. After two years of yet further study, he then obtained a licentiate in Moral Theology from the Gregorian in Rome, followed a year later by a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the same storied institution in 1994.
I did see some reference to pastoral work, but considering we’re like five degrees deep and he still isn’t done studying–hello masters in bioethics from the John Paul II Institute in Rome–it’s not going to surprise you that Father Chomalí mainly followed the academic route, serving in bioethical and theological posts at the Major Pontifical Seminary of Santiago and the Pontifical University of Chile–both of these, you might recall, being institutions that he had personally attended.
In 2001, presumably in part due to his bioethics credentials, he was added to the Pontifical Academy for Life for life, which, yes, I’m repeating myself because not only is “for Life” part of the name, but apparently it was a lifetime appointment. Unfortunately in 2016 Pope Francis shook things up so there are no more appointments to the Pontifical Academy for Life for life.
In 2003, our B plot shows back up, with a successor Cardinal Archbishop of Santiago getting more reports of Father Karadima’s monstrosities. You’ll be pleased to know that at this point the Chilean Bishop’s Conference had new processes in place and you’ll be furious to know that those new processes were basically ignored while the Cardinal told the complainant that he was praying for him. Nothing was done, hashtag thoughts and prayers.
The next year the same cardinal received another report, and you’ll be pleased to know that this time the case wound up referred to a specialist, who determined the allegations were credible and recommended action. You’ll then be *again* furious to learn that the Cardinal proceeded to ignore the determination and dismissed the case anyways. You’ll hear more about all this in *that* cardinal’s episode, for now let’s get back to Fr Chomalí, whose phone is ringing. His white phone.
It’s Pope Benedict, calling to make him Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago and Titular Bishop of Nola because you apparently just can’t be an auxiliary bishop without a little patch of North Africa to theoretically but not practically call your own. Anyways, that all went down in 2006.
In 2010, the Karadima case became international news for the first time when victims filed a criminal complaint in Chile’s courts, twenty-five years after that first 1985 letter to Church authorities. The civil courts did not prove more helpful, dismissing the lawsuit due to the time having passed since the events in question, which really has me wanting to flip some tables. For what it’s worth, the presiding judge made it clear that she thought Karadima was guilty as sin.
The accusations now being public apparently stirred the Church into action. Suddenly the stonewalling Cardinal–reminder that’s not Chomalí but another prelate we’ll discuss in time–sent a reportedly 700 page file over to the Vatican, which in 2011 found Karadima guilty of abusing minors and sentenced him to a "life of prayer and penitence”. The by then 80 year old Karadima would continue protesting his innocence and by some accounts flaunt his ban from ministry, saying Mass for his followers, which, yes, he definitely *still* had followers.
Also in 2011, our Cardinal of the Day Bishop Chomalí became Archbishop Chomalí when Pope Benedict made him Archbishop of Concepción, a bit south of Santiago, which was his first time really serving outside the capital apart from his studies in Rome. And with the Karadima case casting a shadow over the Church across the country, Archbishop Chomalí had his work cut out for him, with trust in the Church as an institution plummeting from 61% in 2010 to just 36% a year later according to polling data.
Incredibly, Archbishop Chomalí managed to *increase* church membership in these conditions, probably aided by the broadly popular election of Pope Francis in 2013. Pope Francis wasn’t magic though, and it’s time to talk about one of his bigger mistakes.
Remember Juan Barros, the Archbishop’s secretary who was accused of helping protect his mentor Father Karadima? Well, he had been made a bishop back in the 90s, and in 2015 against the advice of basically everyone everywhere, Pope Francis decided to give Barros a new post as Bishop of Osorno.
One of the voices against the appointment was Archbishop Chomalí, who was serving as Apostolic Administrator of Osorno at the time and so had front row seats to just how poorly it was coming across, and urged Pope Francis to reconsider. In addition, about half the clergy of the diocese publicly opposed the move–coming out in public against the guy who is set to be your boss is pretty gutsy–and even the politicians got involved, with 51 members of Chile’s National Congress signing a letter opposing the move.
Pope Francis carried on undaunted, and Bishop Barros was installed in a rather poorly attended ceremony, that is, poorly attended unless you count the hundreds of protestors who stormed the Cathedral.
Bishop Barros came over to Osorno from the post he had held as the Military Ordinary for Chile. With that spot now vacant, you guessed it, Archbishop Chomalí was tapped to administer things for Chile’s military, which, it’s worth noting, grants him the rare privilege of being associated with Antarctica on GCatholic’s database, thanks to the Chapel of St. Mary Queen of Peace in Chile’s Antarctic zone.
The controversy over Bishop Barros came to a head a few years later, when Pope Francis visited Chile. To be clear, the visit *didn’t* calm things down–the word “firebombings” comes to mind–and Pope Francis didn’t make a conciliatory gesture during the trip. Quite the opposite in fact. Pope Francis wound up defending his choice to appoint Bishop Barros and keep him in place, stating that the case against Barrros was baseless slander, committing that if he ever received evidence, he would respond.
With the gauntlet thrown, the evidence apparently came, such that within months Pope Francis was apologizing for his stance, and the *entire* Bishops’ Conference of Chile offered their resignations to the Pope, which might give a sense of the magnitude reached here. In the end, most of the bishops, including Archbishop Chomalí, were allowed to carry on, resignations not accepted, though Bishop Barros and three others were sacked as part of the reckoning. Later in the year, presumably as additional fallout from the visit and the subsequent fresh round of investigations, Karadima himself was laicized. *Mr.* Karadima would die in 2021.
In October of 2023, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Chomalí as the fourteenth Archbishop of Santiago de Chile. He became President of the Episcopal Conference of Chile at the same time, which I imagine was no coincidence, though there have been times recently when the two posts are held by different people. He had been the Conference’s Vice President since 2021.
Given his influential post in Chile’s capital, Archbishop Chomalí’s inclusion in Pope Francis’s last batch of new Cardinals was hardly a surprise. Even though Pope Francis didn’t heed his advice at the time, it’s likely that Chomalí’s advice against one of the biggest mistakes of Pope Francis’ papacy was on both their minds as Francis made him a Cardinal.
Shortly after Cardinal Chomalí was elevated, The Pillar, which is becoming something of a go-to source for church news, published a series of short interviews with several of the new Cardinals, including Chomalí. And so as we prepare to wrap things up for today, I’d like to offer you a short quotation from that piece so you can get a bit of flavoring from him rather than from the various dumpster fires he was tasked with putting out:
“Christian anthropology says that if we want to be happy, we have to give ourselves to others. And secular anthropology tells us that we have to seek happiness by our own means. But things end up badly for us that way because we find ourselves in a society that competes but doesn't find itself. And that is precisely where conflicts arise.”
Along with his brother cardinals, Fernando Natalio Cardinal CHOMALÍ GARIB participated in the recent election of Pope Leo. Just before the conclave, Cardinal Chomalí shared a video of himself hand-washing his shirt as part of his preparations, and of course you can catch that exciting link in the show notes. Cardinal Chomali will be eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2037.
Today’s episode is part of Cardinal Numbers, and we’ll be talking about another one of the new cardinals next month. Or well, later this month, since this episode is a bit late. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!