Pope Francis to Create 17 New Cardinals

By Francis X. Rocca
Wall Street Journal
October 9, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-names-17-cardinals-1476009966

People gathered in St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis celebrates a jubilee Mass on Sunday.

Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich in April 2015.

Pope Francis will appoint 17 new cardinals in November, including three from the U.S. and a number from the developing world, a move that reflects his goal of rebalancing the college of cardinals toward regions where Catholicism is growing fastest, as well as his preference for liberals over conservatives.

The new U.S. cardinals, who are the first from the country to be named by Pope Francis, include the archbishops of Chicago and Indianapolis and a former bishop of Dallas. The pope will also elevate to cardinal the Vatican’s envoy to what he called “beloved and martyred Syria.”

With this batch of cardinals, Pope Francis will have nominated more than a third of the men whose most important task is the election of a new pope.

Of the 17 new cardinals named, 13 are under the age of 80 and so will qualify as electors.

Pope Francis made the announcement to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, saying he would elevate the men to the rank of cardinal at a ceremony on Nov. 19.

He said the international nature of his choices—from 11 countries on five continents—reflects a church that is witness to the “mercy of God in every corner of the world.”

The group includes the first cardinals in history from Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, Lesotho, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

The cardinal designate from the Central African Republic, Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, was born in 1967, which will make him the youngest member of the College of Cardinals.

These new appointments will bring the number of cardinal electors to 121, including Cardinal Théodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar, who reaches the age of 80 on Nov. 28. His birthday will then bring the number down to the limit of 120 established by Pope Paul VI.

Forty-four of those, or more than one third, will have been named by Pope Francis.

Three of the new electors hail from Europe: the archbishops of Madrid and Brussels, and the envoy to Syria, an Italian. Another three are from Latin American countries: Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. The archbishop of Port Louis, Mauritius, is also among the new cardinal electors.

Although Pope Francis has boosted the proportion of cardinal electors from the global south, the share from Europe and North America will remain a majority of 71 members, or almost 60%.

Italy will remain unrivaled as the country with the largest representation, of 25 electors, followed by the U.S., with 10.

The pope also said he would name four honorary cardinals, who are over the age of 80 and thus ineligible to vote in a papal conclave. They come from Malaysia, Italy, Lesotho and Albania.

For his choices in the U.S., the pope once again passed over Los Angeles and Philadelphia, archdioceses whose leaders traditionally receive a cardinal’s red hat. They are currently led by Archbishop José Gomez and Archbishop Charles Chaput, respectively, both theological conservatives.

The omission of Los Angeles was especially striking, since it is by far the largest diocese in the U.S. and Archbishop Gomez, a native of Mexico, is a leading advocate for migrants, a cause that Pope Francis has made a signature theme of his pontificate.

Two of the new U.S. cardinals-designate, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis, are among the more liberal voices in the U.S. episcopate.

At a Vatican meeting of bishops on family issues in 2015, Archbishop Cupich supported showing greater leniency to divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment of their first marriages, a line favored by the pope, while Archbishop Chaput was an outspoken supporter of the traditional practice of excluding such Catholics from Communion.

As a Vatican official under Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Tobin criticized two investigations of U.S. nuns aimed at rooting out the alleged influences of secularism and feminism. Both those investigations concluded under Pope Francis without leading to significant changes.

Last year, Archbishop Tobin helped settle a Syrian refugee family in Indiana over the objections of Gov. Mike Pence, now the Republican nominee for vice president.

On Sunday morning, Archbishop Tobin wrote on Twitter: “I am shocked beyond words by the decision of the Holy Father.”

Archbishop Cupich called his appointment “both humbling and encouraging” and said he looked forward to working with the other cardinals.

The other new cardinal from the U.S., Bishop Kevin Farrell, is a native of Ireland but worked in the U.S. since the early 1980s. In August, Pope Francis named him to head a new Vatican office for laity, family and life.