Elevation to Cardinal ‘honour for Church’

Press, 7 January 1983, Page 1

Elevation to Cardinal ‘honour for Church’

“I can’t help but read this appointment as a recognition of the Church in New Zealand, not of myself,” said the new Cardinal Thomas Williams yesterday. The Wellington Archbishop received the news at the Takaka presbytery yesterday morning that Pope John Paul II had elevated him to the College of Cardinals, making him one of the Church’s youngest cardinals. Cardinal Williams, aged 52, is at present the acting parish priest of Takaka, reports NZPA. "To a large extent I am an unknown quality. I have been Archbishop of Wellington for only three years and I am known that well,” C'ardiI W a ' Tianis said. ‘ 'Jq He did not see his elevation as a personal honour. . "I would read it as a sign that the Church universal recognises the state of the Catholic Church in New Zealand as a developed Church," he said.

“I daresay that some cardinals are made so because of their qualities and skills and that is certainly true of my two predecessors, but it cannot be true of me.

“I am totally bewildered and absolutely staggered,” he said.

“The possibility of ever becoming a cardinal was something I have always considered as being tremendously remote. But even as a possibility it was not one that I considered would happen for a long, long time,” Cardinal Williams said. He was in Takaka because two years ago he ordered the merging of the two parishes of Motueka and Takaka as there was not enough work for tw’o priests. “One man normally can handle this but not during the holiday season when there arc so many feasts celebrated in the Church.

“So I came over to help Father Austin on Christmas Eve,” he said.

Cardinal Williams, who has had little peace since he had the news of his appointment yesterday morning, said there were a few more at morning Mass than usual. These included Takaka’s Anglican vicar and one of his parishioners. During an interview constantly interrupted by congratulatory telephone calls, Cardinal Williams spoke of his amazement at having been elevated to the College of Cardinals. Cardinal Williams was born in Wellington. He was educated at St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, before entering Mosgiel’s Holy Cross Seminary in 1954 to train as a priest. In 1956 he was selected for further training in the Vatican where, in 1959, he was ordained a priest.

He then went to the University of Dublin, Ireland, where, in 1962, he gained a bachelor of social sciences degree.

He returned to New Zealand and in 1963 and 1964 was based at Palmerston North before taking up a post with the Catholic Inquiry Centre in Wellington between 1965 and 1970. In 1970 he volunteered for missionary work and was posted to St Ann’s Parish, Leulumoega, Western Samoa, where he served five years as parish priest. Between 1975 and 1979 he was parish priest of Porirua’s Holy Family Church. In 1979 he was named New Zealand’s youngest bishop. The mitre he was presented with symbolised his commitment to the multi-cultural society: its background was made of a fine Samoan mat, the edging was of Tongan tapa, and its bottom featured Maori weaving. Cardinal Williams is the third New Zealander to be given the cardinal’s red hat. Cardinal McKeefry was cardinal from 1969 until his death in 1974, and Cardinal

Delargey from 1975 until his death in 1978. Cardinal Williams is the third cardinal in this region, the others being Cardinal Freeman of Australia and Cardinal Pio of Samoa. There are 80 cardinals at present.

The most important single duty of a cardinal is to elect a Pope, but they also form the Church’s top administrative group. It is expected in Wellington that Cardinal Williams will be called on by the Vatican to assume extra duties.

Church sources in Wellington believe it likely that because of the extra workload, an additional bishop will soon be appointed to Wellington.

Cardinal Williams will travel to the Vatican in February for his ordination.

Other new cardinals named include the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Jozef Glemp.