The first Paraguayan cardinal to return after his appointment in Rome

The cardinal, who left the Italian capital this morning by air, will arrive in the morning, five days after he invested in a ceremony on August 27 in that country with 19 other priests, four of whom are from Latin America.

Father Victor Jiménez, the archdiocese’s attorney general, said the ecclesiastical authority will travel through Spain to Asuncion and will be received at Silvio Pettirossi airport by rulers, religious people and the people in general.

The town will honor Cardinal Martinez during his visit in a caravan that will set out from that air terminal and travel along the main roads and the capital’s squares.

The retinue will pass – as Jimenez said – through the streets of Silvio Pettirossi, Aviadores del Chaco, San Martín and Mariscal Lopez to Brazil, and from there you will reach the Metropolitan Cathedral in Asuncion.

The popular tribute to the Cardinal at that institution will conclude at night with a protocol of welcome, open to the public.

Paraguay, represented by its President Mario Abdo Benítez, conveyed to Pope Francis on Monday in Rome the gratitude of the people of the southern nation, after Saturday’s appointment ceremony.

The President and First Lady, Sylvana Abdo, received Pope Francis and expressed the residents’ relief for the affection shown to the South American nation by the Holy Father, who visited the country in 2015, according to the newspaper.

The great Catholic authority appointed Monsignor Martinez as the country’s first cardinal, through a ceremony in San Pedro Basilica described by ABC Color as a “transcendental” and “historic creation of the Cardinal by Pope Francis in Rome”.

The authorities, believers of this sect and the population in general were impressed by the ecclesiastical rank of the local priest, while the government sent a delegation headed by President Abdo Benitez to the Italian capital.

The Ecclesiastical Council of the Vatican, one of the most important Catholic celebrations after the election of the Pope, appointed 20 cardinals, three of them from Latin America, the Brazilians Leonardo Ulrich and Paulo Cesar and the Colombian Jorge Jiménez.

jcm / apb