Father Angel Fernandez Artime, who has been named by Pope Francis to become a member of the College of Cardinals at the September consistory, will resign next year from his current post as rector general of the Salesian order.
The Spanish cleric, who was elected in 2014 to a six-year term as the head of the Salesian order, and re-elected in 2020 for another six years, will tender his resignation as of July 31, 2014, he announced. He said that plan reflected the outcome of a meeting with Pope Francis after the announcement that he would receive a red hat.
“What is the Holy Father going to entrust to me? He still hasn’t told me,” the 62-year-old cardinal-designate said in a letter to his fellow Salesians. Rumors in Rome suggest that he might be in line for a top post in the Roman Curia—perhaps as prefect of the Dicastery for Religious (whose current head, Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz, is 76), or even as Secretary of State (Cardinal Pietro Parolin has held that job for ten years).