During the morning of October 23, Tagle received an anonymous note with a phone number and a request to call it during the coffee break.
He did so and was told to go to the Secretariat of State, the Vatican's central administration body, at 4:50pm that day.
I immediately started wondering: Why 4:50pm? Why not five? And why are they calling me? What did I do wrong? Tagle said amid laughter from the crowd.
That afternoon the Filipino archbishop asked the president of his synod working group – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who has spent many years in the Roman Curia – what could be the reason for his convocation: Maybe they are sending you to Syria, was the answer.
I immediately started thinking that I would have to change my plane ticket, Tagle said.
When he arrived at the Secretariat of State, he found Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict's 'prime minister,' waiting for him.
Bertone started reading him a letter – and Tagle recalled that it was only slowly he started realizing that he was being made a cardinal. The official announcement would come the next day, on October 24.
There were no questions. Bertone only said 'I will tell the Holy Father that you have already been informed'.
The surprise at the unexpected promotion was among the reasons that led to the tears during the Consistory of November 24.
I cry easily, even if I don't want to. I don't know if it's weakness or strength but [tears] come easily for me. I don't hide my emotions, Tagle explained.
Those were the tears of a man who knows himself, his sins and his limits, but that received a call you can't say 'no' to, but can only answer 'yes' with joy and trust. Those were tears of fear – but also of joy, Tagle added almost as an afterthought.
