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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s new title, held by Cardinal Robert Prevost before he became Pope Leo XIV, is symbolic at best
MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos flooded social media with congratulatory messages for Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, after the Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV gave him a new title.
“The Holy Father has assigned the Title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano to His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization in the Section for First Evangelization and the new particular Churches,” the Vatican said on Saturday, May 24.
The cardinal who previously held this title was Robert Francis Prevost, who was elected on May 8 as Pope Leo XIV.
One Filipino news outlet, in a viral Facebook post, said this development means Tagle “has now fully attained” the status of a high-ranking Vatican official. One Filipino Catholic blog congratulated Tagle on his “new mission.”
Tagle’s new title, however, is not a promotion and is symbolic at best.
Tagle has been a cardinal-bishop — one of the highest-ranking members of the College of Cardinals — since April 14, 2020. Currently, there are only 12 cardinal-bishops among 251 cardinals in the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church.
The late Pope Francis, in other words, gave Tagle the actual promotion five years ago. At the time, Francis even had to break tradition to give him the rank of cardinal-bishop.
Traditionally, there have only been seven cardinal-bishops at the Vatican.
Each of these cardinal-bishops is assigned to one of seven special churches close to Rome, called “suburbicarian sees.” One of them, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, gets two suburbicarian sees. In general, it has always added up to six cardinal-bishops and seven suburbicarian sees.
Canon 350 of the Code of Canon Law states that cardinal-bishops are those “to whom the Roman Pontiff assigns the title of a suburbicarian church.”
In the case of Tagle, no suburbicarian see was assigned to him, but Francis still ordered Tagle’s promotion, “equating it in all respects to the Cardinals awarded the title of a suburbicarian Church.”
Now, under Leo, a suburbicarian see — Albano — has already been assigned to Tagle, who had none since 2020.
‘A little change in symbolic assignments’
Father Gregory Gaston, rector of the Pontificio Collegio Filippino in Rome, explained to Rappler that all cardinals have traditionally been considered part of the clergy of Rome. They are, after all, the closest collaborators of the Pope, who is considered the Bishop of Rome.
He said there was a time, in fact, when one had to be a priest based in Rome to be named a cardinal. But when popes started naming cardinals from different parts of the world — the Philippines, for example, had its first cardinal in 1960 — the “Roman” tradition had to be maintained by giving them titular parishes or dioceses in Rome.
Being assigned to a titular church, he said, means “they are not the ones in charge” of its day-to-day operations.
Gaston said that in the case of Tagle, as a cardinal-bishop, he was given not only a titular parish but a titular diocese.
When asked if the new title was a “promotion” for Tagle, Gaston said it was a matter of giving a titular diocese to a cardinal-bishop who had none in the past.
The 67-year-old former Manila archbishop, he added, remains in his role as pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
“Cardinal Prevost was assigned to Albano, but he became Pope, so that liberated the Diocese of Albano. It was given to Cardinal Tagle. So, it’s a little change of titular or symbolic assignments,” Gaston said.
Tagle’s new title didn’t hold much significance when it came to running the Diocese of Albano.
The Diocese of Albano has its own bishop, Vincenzo Viva, who “is the one running the day-to-day operations of the diocese,” according to Gaston.
He likened this to the situation of Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, who has been assigned the titular Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Rome but “does not run the day-to-day affairs of the parish.” David remains the bishop of Kalookan in the Philippines.
Still, Gaston said cardinals are given titular churches “so that they could be truly — not only in practice but also theologically — close collaborators of the Pope by being part of the clergy of Rome whose bishop is the Pope.” – Rappler.com
