Tonga's Cardinal says new role 'heavy responsibility'

Transcript

Tonga's Cardinal says his new role is both a blessing and a heavy responsibility.

The Bishop of Tonga, Soane Patita Paini Mafi, is among the 20 new cardinals announced by Pope Francis earlier this month, as part of his efforts to reform the leadership of the Church.

Cardinal Mafi describes the role as another level of calling and says he is preparing for a lot of travel to Rome.

He spoke to Amelia Langford about the new job and the euphoric reaction from the community.

SOANE PATITA PAINI MAFI: Yeah it's a special call in a way, it's a special blessing too, to me because it's another level of call if you like with a specific mission and task to focus mainly on near the Pope himself. So therefore most of the time the Cardinal would spend time in Rome. So it is that level of this call to be Cardinal you know it's raised up to that level of responsibility to deal directly with Rome, especially the Holy Father himself. So it's only about more that a hundred Cardinals. So you know it's just a small group of people with that specific responsibility. It's a big responsibility and it's very delicate in the same way, so therefore it requires more of the time and energy and prayer, discipline in a way.

AMELIA LANGFORD: So what does, in the future, will this require a lot of travel? What will be involved?

SPPM: Oh yes certainly travel. Depending if say the Holy Father would give the Cardinals appointed certain tasks and responsibility within the Vatican in Rome. I'm sure a lot of travel will be involved. And if say for example you would be given a full responsibility of one particular congregation or department and then you have to reside in Rome certainly. But at the moment I think there will be a lot of travelling myself. I was thinking when you asked travel, we are the furthest, each time I come to Rome and when Bishops ask me 'Bishop Mafi, where are you from?' and I say 'Oh Australia' and they say 'Oh my God, that's far, far away!' So we are the furthest away from Rome, so I'm very conscious of that.

AL: And what was the reaction of the community in Tonga, of your family and your friends when they found out that you were to be made a Cardinal?

SPPM: Oh, you can imagine that morning that the announcement came. It was so quick because of the media and the internet. Lots of phone calls expressing their excitement. And they were on nine clouds, all the people. And on the facebook they were telling all this, so yeah it was not just for the Catholics only, even non Catholics were sending their greetings and reading letters, even from other countries. I didn't really know that it was going to be that big a thing. So I began to see the immensity of the task and the responsibility, it's no longer a local thing, it's universal now, it's the whole church. Yeah they're quite happy, they're so excited about it. I'm wishing that all this euphoria calm down now. I'm starting to face the reality and preparing myself.

Soane Patita Paini Mafi will be among an elite group of cardinals who will have voting rights on the pope's successor.

He will be installed at a ceremony known as a consistory at the Vatican on the 14th of February.