On Sunday 29 May, Pope Francis announced that he will create 21 new cardinals this August. This will be the eighth time the pontiff has held a consistory to create cardinals, and his selections reflect his continuing efforts to have the college reflect the global face of the Church.
Of this new batch, only eight are from Europe. Six are from Asia, two from Africa, one from North America, and four from Central and Latin America.
Several of the appointments are bishops from unexpected dioceses, too. Alongside favouring a more global face, the pontiff, true to form, has chosen to mix things up and elect clerics from places that are not traditionally ‘cardinal sees’. One such appointment was Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego; another was Archbishop Giorgio Marengo of Mongolia. Mongolia is a country with only 1,300 Catholics across eight parishes—a sign that Francis seeks to privilege places that have been previously overlooked.
You can see the complete list of the cardinals-elect at Vatican News.
As of 27 August, when they will be formerly appointed, 131 cardinals of the 229 will have the ability to vote for Pope Francis’ successor. (After they reach the age of 80, they are no longer allowed to vote.) Of those, over half, a staggering 63 per cent, have been elected by Francis. The clear implication of this, as many people have recognised, is that the pontiff is ‘stacking’ the college with men who share his vision for the Church, ensuring his successor will carry the baton.
After their election, Pope Francis has also said that he will meet with them to reflect together on his recent Apostolic Constitution Praedicate evangelium, which he instituted in March of this year.
Origin of the College of Cardinals
Today, cardinals are well known for being the ones who gather secretly to elect a new pope; they also oversee some of their country’s largest archdioceses, and head up major Vatican congregations and dicasteries. They are often portrayed as symbols of power in the Church.
Historically, the college of cardinals served an important function as mediator between the pope and the faithful. It was a ‘middle-ground’, so to speak, between two extremes in the Church: the autocracy of the pope, on the one hand, and democratic participation of the faithful, on the other, neither of which was feasible or desirable.
However, by the time this middle ground became the college’s explicit justification (first by Henry of Susa, c. 1200–1271), the position of cardinal had been evolving for at least six centuries. The earliest records we have date back to the sixth century, where the position of cardinal was given to seven clerics of the seven regions of Rome to serve the pope with various tasks.
Over time, as papal authority grew (alongside the administrative responsibilities of Rome), the number of cardinals increased as well.
The word cardinal comes from the Latin cardo, meaning ‘hinge’. In this sense, their role originally was less about ‘power’—popularly construed—than it was about serving a practical purpose for the smooth functioning of the Church.
How does the Pope select cardinals?
There’s no ‘method’ for the creation of cardinals. According to the Code of Canon Law, the pope does so freely and according to his own prerogative:
The Roman Pontiff freely selects men to be promoted as cardinals, who have been ordained at least into the order of the presbyterate and are especially outstanding in doctrine, morals, piety, and prudence in action (§351.1).
Because cardinals serve important functions in the Church, especially the election of popes, it is particularly important to seek men who are ‘especially outstanding’.
Historically, there were certain ‘unwritten rules’ surrounding the election of cardinals, mostly concerning the traditional practice of appointing archbishops from ‘cardinal sees’, which were often the most ‘important’ archdioceses in each country. Ignoring these unwritten rules, Pope Francis is instead choosing cardinals for their qualities rather than their location.
There have also been rules limiting the number of cardinals, but in the modern era, these caps have also been consistently ignored by pontiffs from John XXIII through to Francis.
