Francis goes to peripheries for new cardinals

Pope Francis has ripped up the rulebook for the appointment of cardinals, naming 15 new electors and five retired cardinals with scant regard for long-established Vatican conventions.

In the latest example of Francis’ shake-up of the Vatican, the Pope defied precedent to nominate bishops and archbishops from 18 countries including some that do not currently have any cardinals and others that never had one.

At the Angelus last Sunday, Pope Francis said on 14 February he will have “the joy” of naming 15 voting cardinals from 14 countries “who manifest the indissoluble connection between the Church of Rome and the Churches of the world”.

He said the five non-voting bishops emeriti also named as cardinals (from Colombia, Italy, Germany, Argentina and Mozambique, bringing the total number of countries represented to 18) “are distinguished for their pastoral charity” and represent “so many other bishops who, with the same pastoral concern, have given witness of love for Christ”.

The 20 new members, the Vatican said, demonstrated that the most important criterion for Francis’ selection was “universality”. He named only one cardinal from the Roman Curia, adding to their woes after a stinging rebuke in his Christmas address to them (see The Tablet 3 January).

Spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said it was “significant” that Francis named only one person from the Curia as a cardinal, in an apparent attempt to balance their influence. Curia members still account for about a quarter of the cardinal electors.

Pope Francis did not appoint any bishops from the US to the College of Cardinals “because they already have a significant number, and that number has remained stable”, the Vatican said, while the presence of four countries that have never had a cardinal – Cape Verde, Tonga, Myanmar and Panama – was “noteworthy”.

The Pope demonstrated that he considers the posts of prefects of the Congregations and of important curia institutions – in this case, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, whose prefect, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, was named – as cardinalatial posts. However, he also showed he does not feel bound to follow a tradition in which some positions automatically qualified the holder for the honour. There were several nominations from sees that in the past have not had a cardinal, such as sees in Italy, Spain and Mexico.