“I’ve tried to do that in the past, and I’ll need to do more,” said Collins, who, as an archbishop, issued many public statements. “Not in a partisan, political sense. We don’t choose a party. But I intend to speak out on the moral issues in society.
“How, when and in what forum — that will be a matter of prudential judgment. I’ll have to make that judgment. But it’s incumbent on a spiritual leader — a bishop or a cardinal — to do that.”
Collins, who turns 65 on Jan. 16, was among 22 bishops selected by Pope Benedict to become cardinals. He becomes Canada’s third active cardinal, joining Cardinals Marc Ouellet, president of the Congregation of Bishops in the Vatican, and Jean-Claude Turcotte, archbishop of Montreal.
Collins said he learned of the news on Jan. 5 after landing from an early evening flight from Washington and noticing a message on his Blackberry to call the Ottawa office of the apostolic nuncio, the Vatican’s representative in Canada.
“He told me that the Holy Father was going to make me a cardinal in the morning,” Collins said. “I said ‘wow!’ I was astonished. What a great honour.”
Archbishop Collins, who turns 65 on Jan. 16, will remain archbishop of Toronto but will 'be more involved in the life of the Church,' he said in an interview with Newstalk Radio in Toronto.
CNS Photo/Bill Wittman
Typically humble, Collins said the honour is not his alone as much as it indicates the Pope’s esteem for the role of Canada and its largest diocese in the universal Church.
“When I first heard the news I was taken aback,” Collins said. “Later, I thought about the people in the archdiocese. It is a good thing for our local Church to have that direct connection to the universal Church, to be connected in a special way to the Holy Father.”
The consistory to install the new cardinals will be held Feb. 18-19 in Rome. There, in two ceremonies that are steeped in centuries of tradition, the Pope will present Collins with a gold ring as a sign of fidelity to the Church and a zucchetto and biretta, the “red hat.”
Typically, during the consistory a new cardinal is assigned a parish in Rome where he acts as “spiritual protector” and an “honorary pastor” of the Pope’s diocese. These pastors of Rome hold the responsibility of selecting the bishop of Rome, the Pope.
Collins will become the fourth cardinal in the history of the archdiocese of Toronto and the 16th cardinal in the history of Canada. He follows Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic who passed away in Toronto last August at age 81.
Although Collins will remain archbishop of Toronto, he expects to become more involved in the worldwide life of the Church by being asked to serve on Vatican commissions or committees and attending consistories called by the Pope. That will mean some extra trips to Rome each year but his primary responsibilities will remain in Toronto.
“I may have some additional duties, but my fundamental duties won’t change,” he said.
At the death of a pope, cardinals under the age of 80 gather in conclave in Rome for a closed meeting to elect a successor. Collins called this the “most profound” responsibility of a cardinal.
He said he hopes to pattern his work as a cardinal after two saints he cites as heroes, Francis de Sales and Charles Borromeo. In particular, he said he admires the focus St. Charles Borromeo brought to his duties as cardinal of Milan during the turbulent post-reformation age in the 16th century.
“As Catholics, we are called not to drift, but to be focussed,” he said. “St. Charles Borromeo was a very holy man, very dedicated and focussed.”
Collins was widely rumoured last year to be in line for a cardinal’s red hat. Churchwatchers noted that he seemingly was being groomed for bigger things based on significant commissions received from the Pope over the past two years. In 2010 he was made a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, was named as an Apostolic Visitor to Ireland to report on child abuse and was invited to a Synod of Bishops studying Christian hardship in the Middle East. Last year Collins was made a member of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and was named as the Vatican’s Canadian delegate for Anglicanorum Coetibus, established to receive Anglicans into the Catholic Church.
Born and raised in Guelph, Ont., where he was an altar boy at the Church of Our Lady, Collins was ordained a priest in 1973. Pope John Paul II named him bishop of St. Paul, Alta., in 1997 and archbishop of Edmonton in 1999. Pope Benedict appointed him as the 10th archbishop of Toronto on Dec. 16, 2006.
Fr. Dennis Noon, pastor at Church of Our Lady, has known Collins for more than 40 years. He told the Guelph Mercury that Collins is humble, intelligent and easily relates to people.
“Obviously the Pope has recognized the gifts that he has,” Noon said. “The only next step is if he were ever elected pope — next to that, being named a cardinal is the highest honour you could have.”