Archbishop Yoo Heung-shik Lazarus, Minister of the Congregation for the Clergy of the Holy See, has been officially appointed Cardinal.



Pope Francis celebrated the Sunday prayer at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican and announced 21 new cardinals, including the archbishop of Judea.



With this, Archbishop Yu became the fourth cardinal in the history of Catholicism in Korea.



It's been about 11 months since he was appointed Pontifical Chancellor.



The Catholic Church in Korea produced the deceased Cardinals Suhwan Kim (1922~2009), Nicholas Jeong Jinseok (1931~2021), and Cardinals Sujeong Yeom Andrea (78).



The status of Catholicism in Korea is expected to rise further in that, while all of the cardinals appointed so far are from the Archdiocese of Seoul, this time, a cardinal from the Vatican was born for the first time.



Born in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do in 1951, the new Cardinal Yu graduated from Laterano University in Rome, Italy in 1979 with a degree in dogmatic theology and was ordained a priest there.



Afterwards, he served as the chief aide in Daeheung-dong, Daejeon, the director of Solmoe Holy Land retreat, the director of the Daejeon Catholic Education Center, the head of the pastoral department of the Daejeon Diocese, and the professor and president of Daejeon Catholic University, before being ordained a bishop in 2003.



Since 2005, he has been serving as the Archdiocese of Daejeon, and in June of this year, he was selected as the Minister of the Holy See, who oversees the affairs and life of priests and deacons around the world.



It was the first case in the history of the Vatican where a Korean clergyman was appointed to a higher position than assistant secretary.



It was foreseen that the ministers of the nine provinces (congregations), which are the administrative organs of the Holy See, would be appointed cardinals because they are customarily classified as cardinals.



The new Cardinal Yoo is considered one of the few Korean clergy who communicate very closely with Pope Francis.



Pope Francis' visit to Korea in August 2014 was also triggered by a letter from the new Cardinal Yu requesting participation in the Asian Youth Congress, which was scheduled to be held at Solmoe Holy Land in Dangjin, Chungcheongnam-do.



After that, he was known to have personally visited the Pope at the Vatican from time to time to discuss major issues of Catholicism in Korea.



Cardinals are the highest ranking priests in the Catholic Church after the Pope.



He is also called the Pope's highest aide because he assists the Pope and manages the church smoothly.



The College of Cardinals, to which all cardinals around the world belong, is the Pope's highest advisory body in canon law.



Cardinals under the age of 80 have one vote in the Conclave in the event of the Pope's death.



Like Cardinal Yeom Su-jeong, the new Cardinal Yu will also have the right to vote.



Cardinal Yeom was also appointed Cardinal by Pope Francis in February 2014.



The inauguration ceremony of the new Cardinal Yu is scheduled to be held on August 27.



(Photo = Yonhap News)