VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
John L. Allen Jr. | Jan. 12, 2014 NCR Today
Popes bestow red hats, the symbol of the cardinal’s office, for a variety of reasons. In some cases it’s to signal the importance of a particular office, or to reward loyal performance over a lifetime, or to confirm the importance of a particular diocese.
For his first crop of new cardinals, Pope Francis also seems to be using red hats to teach. In effect, the first pontiff from the developing world is offering a lesson in the realities of life in a global church.
The obvious take-away from the 19 new cardinals announced by Francis on Jan. 12 is that ten come from outside Europe, with only four Vatican officials (three Italians and one German), just two other new residential European cardinals, and only one from North America.
There will be no new cardinals from the United States in Francis’ first consistory, the event in which new cardinals are created.(The two obvious places where new cardinals might have been named in the U.S., Los Angeles and Philadelphia, both still have retired cardinals under the age of 80, and popes traditionally have been reluctant to name two cardinal-electors in the same diocese.)
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