The Pope Francisco appointed this Saturday 20 new cardinals, including a Spaniard and four Latin Americansin which it is his eighth consistory, according to various international media reports.
It is the first time that this type of ceremony officiated by a Supreme Pontiff in the Vatican It is celebrated in the month of August, and will be followed by a meeting of all the cardinals of the world, scheduled at the Holy See next Monday and Tuesday.
Also today Jesus wants to bring this fire to earth; he wants to light it up again on the shores of our daily stories. He calls us by name, he looks us in the eye and asks: Can I count on you? https://t.co/YU8pYa9XGN
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) August 27, 2022
In the list of the new cardinals are the Spanish Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga; the one from Brasilia, Paulo Cesar Costa; that of Manaus, Leonardo Ulrich, who will be the first cardinal of the Brazilian Amazon region; that of Asunción, Adalberto Martínez Flores, who will become the first Paraguayan cardinal; and the Archbishop Emeritus of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, highlights the Efe agency.
Among those who also received the appointment were the Archbishop of Ekwulobia (Nigeria), Peter Okpaleke, the Archbishop of Goa and Damao (India), Filipe Neri António Sebastião di Rosário Ferrão, the Archbishop of Hyderabad (India), Anthony Poola, or Bishop from Wa (Ghana), Richard Kuuia Baawobr; and the young Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, a 48-year-old Italian who is the administrator of the Catholic Church in Mongolia, where there are just over 1,500 Catholics.
«A cardinal loves the Church, always with the same spiritual fire, whether dealing with the big questions, or dealing with the smallest; either meeting with the great of this world, as with the little ones, who are great before God », the Pope said in his homily, quoted by the Spanish agency.
“Let us look at Jesus again: only He knows the secret of this humble magnanimity, of this meek power, of this universality attentive to details. The secret of the fire of God, which descends from heaven, illuminating from one end to the other, and which slowly cooks the food of poor families, migrants, or those who do not have a home”, added the first dad Latin American.
Several experts agree that the new appointments are in line with the main ideas of Bergoglio’s pontificate, whose purpose would be to initiate a long and complex process to decentralize the government of the Catholic Church.
In addition, of the twenty cardinals now ordained, 16 will have the right to vote in the next conclave due to their age – under eighty, and six (37%) come from peripheral, poor countries where Christianity represents a tiny part of the population, points out a Article published this Saturday by the newspaper El País.
According to the count of that medium, the total number of cardinals increases to 226 and the voters go from 116 to 132. Of this select group, 83 (63%) have been chosen by Francis, 38 by Benedict XVI and 11 by John Paul II .
It also grows from 90 to 94 cardinals without the right to vote. The publication highlights that in 2013, when the Argentine came to the pontificate, Asia and Oceania had 11 cardinal electors, and that after this consistory, that figure has increased to 24, some from areas where there had never been a cardinal and where the percentage of Catholics is minimal, like East Timor, Singapore or Mongolia.
Experts also point out that the traditional power centers of Christianity, such as Europe and specifically Italy, are progressively losing influence. On a numerical level, Europe has gone from 60 to 54 cardinals, while the decrease in Italian electors has become evident, which will drop from 28 in 2013 to 14 next year, when some turn 80.
Right now, the United States has the second-highest number of cardinal electors, 10, after Italy, which has 20, according to a report of the CNN en Español television network published on its website.
