Why Cardinal Tagle is part of Pope Francis’ Asia-Pacific tour

Filipinos waved the Philippine flag, at least in the virtual world, as photos of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle aboard the papal plane went viral on social media.

Tagle is joining Pope Francis as the 87-year-old pontiff visits Asia-Pacific countries, starting with Indonesia on Tuesday, September 3, in the longest trip of his pontificate. The Pope is also scheduled to visit Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore in the tour that will last until September 13.

The Pope skipped the Philippines, which he already visited in January 2015, because he is prioritizing countries “where Catholics are very tiny but influential minorities,” explained Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president, in a message to Rappler in April. The Pope’s increasing frailty was also a factor.

Fortunately, Tagle’s photos aboard the papal plane served a vicarious purpose for Filipinos.

On Tagle’s Facebook page, one Facebook user said “there is this immense feeling of blessedness when Pope Francis and our dear Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle are together.” 

“Cardinal Tagle is the next Pope… to God be the glory,” another Facebook user commented.

It is common, however, to see the 67-year-old Filipino cardinal aboard the papal plane because of his crucial role at the Vatican.

Tagle, former archbishop of Manila and former bishop of Imus in Cavite, is now one of two pro-prefects of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization. The Pope named him to the Vatican bureaucracy on December 8, 2019, ending eight years as Manila archbishop.

Tagle’s office is significant because, while the Vatican is made up of different departments, the Dicastery for Evangelization is the only one headed by the Pope himself. 

The most important department in the Vatican bureaucracy used to be the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith, but the first Latin American pope revamped the Roman Curia to put renewed emphasis on spreading the Catholic faith. 

French Catholic theologian and cultural anthropologist Michel Chambon, coordinator of the Singapore-based Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics, underscored Tagle’s role as “the third highest official of the Vatican” in this Rappler opinion piece about the Pope’s Asia-Pacific trip.

Tagle, according to people close to him, is the first to cringe whenever he is called a future pope or described as the “Asian Francis,” a moniker introduced by Vatican analyst John Allen Jr. a decade ago. (When we asked him about this in 2014, Tagle responded in jest, “That’s an opinion that I take as a joke.”)

For sure, Tagle would be the first to bring the attention back to Francis: Why is he visiting Asia-Pacific in the first place?

“It is a sign of his paternal closeness to what he calls ‘existential peripheries,’” explained Tagle in an interview recently published by Vatican News.

“Truly, I am younger than the Pope, and these long journeys are heavy even for me. For him, embracing this effort is an act of humility, too,” said Tagle, noting that it shows “obedience to the mission.”

Choosing to visit Asia-Pacific, added the cardinal, does not mean the Pope “prefers” one continent over the other. The Pope, in fact, plans to visit Belgium and Luxembourg after his Asian tour.

“It seems to me that, with these journeys, he wants to encourage Catholics in all the contexts in which they find themselves,” Tagle said.

The cardinal pointed out that “Asia is home to two-thirds of the world’s population,” and majority of them are poor. “Pope Francis knows that there are many poor people in those areas, and among the poor there is an attraction to the figure of Jesus and to the Gospel, even in the midst of war, persecution, and conflict,” he said. 

The attention might make Tagle uncomfortable, but by bringing along the most popular and most powerful cardinal from Asia, Pope Francis gets his message across. – Rappler.com