Guardian

ARCHBISHOP John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja and five other prelates newly elevated to the rank of cardinal have been urged by Catholic Pontiff, Pope Benedict to shun the “worldly logic of power” and stick to spreading the gospel.

The other cardinals are American Archbishop James Michael Harvey, Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, a major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara rite in India, Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota, Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, and  Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church in Lebanon.

The pope on Sunday presided at a solemn mass in St Peter’s Basilica with the six men from the United States, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Lebanon and Colombia the day after they became cardinals at a ceremony known as a consistory.

“To be disciples of Jesus, then, means not letting ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but bringing into the world the light of truth and God’s love.

“To you, dear and venerable brother cardinals - I think in particular of those created yesterday - is entrusted this demanding responsibility: to bear witness to the kingdom of God, to the truth,” Benedict said.

Reports said Indian women at the mass wore saris and African women wore traditional dresses. Prayers were read in Arabic, Hindi, Yoruba and Tagalog as well as English, French and Italian.

Onaiyekan, 68, according to Reuters yesterday, said: “The Boko Haram, the young men who are throwing bombs all over the place in Nigeria, have been rejected by the mainstream of Islam in Nigeria. But somehow, the way the Islamic religion is organized there’s nobody who can tell them ‘Stop it!