Pope Francis very clearly emphasised the non-European “imprint”
of his pontificate yesterday with his first batch of new cardinals by
appointing 10 out of 16 new “electors” from outside Europe. Three of them come
from Latin America, the remaining seven from Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast,
Nicaragua, Haiti, the Philippines, South Korea and Canada. As is customary, the
Pope named them during his Sunday Angelus address in St Peter’s Square.
Argentine Francis, the pontiff who describes himself as coming “from the ends of the world”, has made no secret of his belief that the Catholic Church is too “Eurocentric”. Even including yesterday’s appointments, the College of Cardinal Electors (those under 80) is still almost 50 per cent European.
Argentine Francis, the pontiff who describes himself as coming “from the ends of the world”, has made no secret of his belief that the Catholic Church is too “Eurocentric”. Even including yesterday’s appointments, the College of Cardinal Electors (those under 80) is still almost 50 per cent European.
The pope is trying to “rebalance” the college and redress a
situation under which, in 2012, 67 European elector cardinals were registered
out of a total of 125. Furthermore, 30 of those cardinals were Italians,
representing almost 25 per cent of the electoral body even if only 4 per cent
of the world’s Catholics live in Italy. Even now, Latin America, with just
under half the world’s Catholics, still has less than 20 per cent of the vote.
This non-European emphasis obviously worked against someone
like the Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, often touted in Rome as a future
cardinal. Vatican insiders argue that, given Ireland has two cardinals in
Archbishop Seán Brady of Armagh and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Connell of
Dublin, there was never any real possibility Francis would have appointed a
third one.
Not surprisingly, the largest contingent of new, non-European
cardinals comes from Latin America, with the red hat being bestowed on the
pope’s successor in Buenos Aires, Archbishop Mauro Aurelio Poli, on the
Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Orani Joao Tempesta, and on the Archbishop of
Santiago, Chile, Riccardo Ezzati Andrello.
It says much that four of the six Europeans named yesterday
were “automatic” curia appointments, as the heads of important Vatican
departments. The four are: the pope’s secretary of state, Italian archbishop
Pietro Parolin; the Prefect of the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith
(ex-Holy Office), German archbishop Gerhard Muller; the Prefect of the
Congregation of the Clergy, Italian archbishop Beniamino Stella; and the
secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Italian Lorenzo Baldiserri.
The latter appointment may be significant because it lends
immediate weight to the Vatican’s synod or parliament, due to meet twice in the
next two years to discuss the role of the family.
In the end, Francis yesterday named 19 new cardinals, also nominating three non-electors for their “service to the church”, including 98-year-old Archbishop Loris Capovilla, former private secretary to Pope John XXIII.
With the numbers of the cardinal electors down to 104 by the
end of May, Francis named 16 new ones to bring the number up to the required
120.
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