Tue, Jan 06, 2015 page6

• Pope Francis names 20 new cardinals

  DIVINING DIVERSITY? Although many of the new cardinals are from outside Europe, the vast majority of the ‘princes of the Catholic Church’ remain European

  • AFP, VATICAN CITY
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  Pope Francis on Sunday named 20 new cardinals, a majority of them from Africa, Asia and Latin America, increasingly key areas as the Roman Catholic Church’s support shifts from its traditional European stronghold.

  Fifteen of the new cardinals — considered “princes of the Church” — are under the age of 80, meaning they are eligible to join the conclave that elects the pope’s successor.

  In announcing the new voting cardinals, Pope Francis said they come “from 14 countries from every continent [and] manifest the indissoluble links between the Church of Rome” and churches around the world.

  

  A boy sits on the shoulders of an adult to photograph Pope Francis leading a prayer on Sunday from a window at the Vatican in Saint Peter’s Square.

  Photo: EPA

  The list of newly named cardinals includes three from Africa, five from Latin America and a combined total of five from Asia and the Pacific. Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga becomes the first cardinal from the Polynesian archipelago. At 53, he is also the youngest. John Dew, Archbishop of Wellington, who also made the list, described Mafi’s appointment as “great news” for the region.

  “Although we are geographically far from much of the world, Pope Francis has gone to the periphery of the world to name new cardinals,” he said in a statement.

  Meanwhile, Archbishop Daniel Sturla, only the second Uruguayan to be appointed a cardinal, said he was “shocked” by the honor, which comes less than a year after he was appointed archbishop of Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo.

  The pope’s choice of a Haitian cardinal in February last year was also a first for the church.

  Despite the variety of nations represented in the pope’s new choices, Europeans still accounted for the single largest group with seven, including three Italians.

  Francis, who has undertaken a reform of the Vatican’s administrative body known as the Curia, named only one cardinal from within it: Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, a Frenchman. He previously served as the Vatican’s foreign minister.

  No US or Canadian cardinals were named on Sunday.

  “Their numbers are already consistent and remained stable,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

  Once these new members of the College of Cardinals are officially installed — expected on Feb. 14 — there will be 228 members, including 125 who can vote in conclaves.

  The new cardinals reflect a change in church demographics, which have shifted toward Africa, Latin America and Asia in the past century.

  In 1910, about 65 percent of the world’s Catholics lived in Europe, with 24 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a 2010 study from the Pew Research Center, a US think tank. By 2010, Latin America accounted for 39 percent of the church’s followers, while 16 percent were in Africa and 24 percent were in Europe.

  Despite the new nominations, the overwhelming number of cardinals named during this and the previous two papacies have been Europeans. Over the three most recent papacies, 57 have been from Europe, 19 from Latin America, 15 from Africa, 14 from Asia and three from the Pacific.
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