Pope Francis has put his stamp firmly on the Roman Catholic Church by naming 20 new cardinals from countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Vietnam and Panama.
Fr Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said the choices signalled that the Pope did not feel “chained to tradition” as he shifted the balance of power in the Church towards the developing world.
The clerics from 14 different countries include the first men from Tonga, Burma and Cape Verde to become so-called “princes of the Church”.
The list also includes five retired bishops and archbishops too old to take part in the conclave to choose the next Pope but who, he said, were “distinguished for their pastoral charity”.
Pope Francis, who declared within days of his election in 2013 that he wanted a “poor church for the poor”, has now appointed 39 cardinals.
That includes 31 cardinal electors, those under the age of 80 who would be eligible to choose his successor in the next conclave – a quarter of the overall total.
Significantly, there was no one from the United States on the list – the second time since Francis became Pope that a new batch of cardinals had been announced without any names from the Church’s biggest source of income.
The list also did not include the Patriarch of Venice or Archbishop of Turin – sees which have traditionally carried automatic appointment to the College of Cardinals.
Fr Lombardi said it showed the Pope did not feel bound by the traditions of so-called “cardinalatial sees”.
He said it was also significant that only one of the new cardinal electors was an official in the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration – Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
Pope Francis underlined the point by announcing he would also be holding a two-day meeting with all cardinals in February to “reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia”. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
