The College of cardinals is global: a mirror of the world Church. Never before have so many countries were represented in the circle of cardinals who are likely to participate in the event of a papal election.
On Saturday, Pope Francis takes 13 clergymen in the circle of cardinals. Ten of them have the 80. Age has not yet reached. So you would be entitled in the event of a Conclave to participate in the papal election. With the current Consistory, as the Ceremony of the cardinal collection is called in the Church language, Francis has determined for the first time, more than half of the possible Pope’s voters. And many of them are Francis-cardinals.
The Red is the color of the cardinal’s clothes
But what exactly is a Pope Francis-cardinal? “Pope Francis has named cardinals, which correspond to his idea of service in the Church, or to the poor, the migrants, the addresses of the refugees, speaks for those who have no voice,” says the Church historian Massimo Faggioli of the German wave. The election of the Pope, applicable to the men of the Church, “acting in this spirit, a conscious personal decision, even if they come from rich countries. Or he chose cardinals from poor countries, from the periphery. But Francis is not really interested in, to make someone a cardinal, just because he is the Archbishop of a particular city.”
Luxembourg and Bologna
Faggioli identifies as examples of new cardinals from a rich country, the archbishops of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Hollerich (61), and Bologna, Matteo Maria to an (63). The red cardinal’s hat goes to Bologna and not from Venice or Milan, which were represented in former times, almost always in the highest circle of the dignitaries.
Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, is one of the new cardinals
A native of the Romans an, since 2015 in Bologna, reports that since then, again and again, for a more humane migration policy and for the Roma minority to have their say. He was almost three decades of Trastevere as a Clergyman in the Roman district and the local community of Sant’egidio, which is committed to marginalised groups and especially for refugees, are closely connected. The selected cardinals are similar, so Faggioli, “the style of Francis as the Bishop himself used.”
In the future, the College of cardinals is established as global as never before in the history of the Church. A total of 68 countries are represented in the panel. For comparison: As of 2005, the choice of a successor for Pope John Paul II (who also made the Church to the world Church) decency, brought together cardinals from 52 countries. Eight years later, Benedict then represented 48 countries were after the resignation of Pope simply because the Pope is from Germany again, more on Europeans, particularly Italians. Francis has been working on since his first Consistory exactly in the other direction. So, in all five countries, which were never previously a cardinal for years, and all of which, Francis thought: Haiti, Papua new Guinea, the Central African Republic, Cape Verde and Tonga.
Bishop Ramazzini of Guatemala close to the people – threatened with death
Among the new cardinals, the archbishops of Jakarta, Kinshasa and Havana, is also the Bishop of the law unknown to the diocese of Huehuetenango in Guatemala, Alvaro Ramazzini, among others. But the 72-Year-old has a reputation as a committed champion of human rights, is directed against drug-related crime, criticized the destruction of the environment by mining large-scale projects and has been threatened even with death. Something impressed with a Pope like Francis. And a criterion is shown in the case of Pope Francis to cardinals also: again and again, he also appoints members of the clergy, which have proven themselves in the dialogue with Islam.
“More languages, different biographies”
Briefly, the cardinals under 80 years of age belong to the circle from Saturday even 128 spiritual. But four of them are between the 7. and the 15. October 80 years old, and thus lose the right to the papal election. It looks spiritual to the remaining 124, it is evident that The absolute dominance of the Europeans is broken. From the ancient continent of 53 cardinals (43 per cent). For Central and South America 23, Africa, and Asia, each of 16, North America 12, Australia and Oceania 4. A more global embossed to the College of cardinals, says Faggioli, brings also new problems or challenges: “more languages, larger differences in the biographies”. The cardinals in total, each other know is as good as it used to be.
Around 100 cardinals of the Church are at least 80 years old. In a Conclave for a papal election, you are not allowed to move in. But many of them are yet speaking, also belong to the Vatican bodies, draw certainly occasionally Church political threads. This age limit of 80 years for Conclave participants was first introduced almost 50 years ago, in 1970, by Pope Paul VI. At the first Conclave after that, in 1978, there were only 15 cardinals who were 80 years of age or older and the outside remained. The times are changing.