Availability and obedience: the intentions of Uruguay's new cardinal

Montevideo, Uruguay, Jan 13, 2015 / 11:05 am

Archbishop Daniel Sturla Berhouet of Montevideo, one of the 20 men to be made a cardinal at next month's consistory, has said his response to the appointment is one of both availability and obedience to the Pope.

Asked how he plans to respond to the new responsibilities Francis has given him, Archbishop Sturla told CNA Jan 11.: "Above all, a sense of availability and obedience to the Holy Father."

"I have loved the Pope since I was a child, because that was what my family taught me. After that, I am a Salesian, and for Salesians fidelity to the successor of Peter is one of the essential elements that Don Bosco left … I shall do my best to contribute to the good of the Church and concretely to my archdiocese and the Church in Uruguay through this call to greater love and service," the archbishop said.

He explained that he learned of his appointment as a cardinal when a priest friend telephoned him: "I said it was impossible, that no one had said anything to me."

"But then I got two more messages from other Uruguayans who were at St. Peter's. So I said, 'well, it must be true.'"

The archbishop said his first reaction was shock. "And afterwards – I was going to my office – I went instead to the chapel to pray for a while, and that's where the Lord began slowly filling me with peace."

His selection by Pope, he said, "is recognition for the Church in Uruguay, a Church that in the context of Latin America is a poor and free Church that has learned to proclaim Jesus Christ in the context of a secular society, remaining faithful to its Catholic identity and having a missionary spirit."  

According to Latinobarometro, between 1995 and 2013 self-identified Catholics in Uruguay fell from 60 to 41 percent of the total population.

Widespread secularization in Uruguay is a great challenge, he said, reflecting that "in this plural and secular reality, we are called to joyfully proclaim Jesus Christ. Our invitation is to go out to our brothers and sisters who have strayed from the practice of the faith or to those who are indifferent to God, which is so common in our society."

Archbishop Sturla was born in Montevideo in 1959, and studied at the St. John the Baptist College of the Brothers of the Holy Family, followed by the Salesians' John XXIII Institute, the Miguel Rua Institute, and the Theological Institute of Uruguay.

He entered the Salesians of St. John Bosco as a novice in 1979, and he took his first vows in the institute the following year; he was ordained a priest of the order in 1987. He served as a guidance counselor; a formator of novices; and director of the John XXIII Institute.

Archbishop Sturla also served as the Salesians inspector in Uruguay, and as president of the nation's Conference of Religious.

In 2011 he was appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Montevideo, and Pope Francis appointed him as archbishop of that local Church on Feb. 11, 2014.

He teaches the history of the Church in Uruguay, and has authored books on the secularization of the country's calendar and on the separation of Church and state enshrined in the 1917 Uruguayan constitution.

Archbishop Sturla will be the first Uruguayan cardinal since the death of Cardinal Antonio Barbieri, who was himself Archbishop of Montevideo from 1940 to 1976.

The Uruguayan bishops conference welcomed Archbishop Sturla's appointment, saying Jan. 5 that they "greet with all affection the brother who has been called to that high service in the Church."

"We express our thanks to Pope Francis for this gesture of benevolence for the pilgrim Church in Uruguay. He knows us well; he knows our strengths and weaknesses. With this nomination we are renewed in our commitment to live and to bring 'the joy of the Gospel' into our encounters, proclamations, and service to all our Uruguayan people, with respect to the plurality which characterizes our society."

Speaking at his cathedral on the day of the announcement, Archbishop Sturla told journalists he "was and still am shocked" by the news, adding that he is "a servant of Christ and of the Church" and that he hopes his appointment will help him "to better love and serve."

Archbishop Sturla said, "I am only very recently the Archbishop of Montevideo, so I see this as a distinction for the Church in Uruguay rather than me. Pope Francis had deference for the Uruguayan Church, which undoubtedly has had pastors very worthy of this, more so than I, with many more years of work and of experience."

He will be made a cardinal at a consistory held at the Vatican on Feb. 14. At the age of 55, he will be among 15 new voting cardinals. Pope Francis will also raise five men over the age of 80, and thus unable to vote in the next conclave, to the dignity of cardinal.