Pope Francis creates 21 new cardinals
December 7, 2024
Pope Francis installed on Saturday21 new cardinals from five continents, many of whom could one day help elect his successor.
The pope led a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica, with what appeared to be a bruised chin. The Vatican's press office said it would not comment on what had happened.
Later, the German DPA news agency cited Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni as saying that 87-year-old Francis bumped into his bedside table on Friday morning.
The move marks Francis' 10th consistory to create new so-called "princes" of the Catholic Church since he became pope in 2013.
It is the biggest infusion of voting-age cardinals in Francis' pontificate.
With the new additions, the pope would have created 110 of the 140 cardinals under 80, thus eligible to vote in a conclave.
Cardinals from Africa and Asia
The appointments also come as 87-year-old Francis looks to cement his legacy as the head of a more inclusive and universal institution.
Five bishops from Latin America, including from Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina, two from Africa's Ivory Coast and Algeria and the archbishop of Tehran are among those being elevated to cardinal.
"There hasn't been an African pope, but it's a possibility in the church," Ignace Bessi Dogbo, the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, said in an interview a day before his installation.
"I think that this eventuality — which is not necessarily a demand — if this eventuality were to arise, the universal church would have to be ready to take it on," he added.
Francis, history's first Latin American pope, has long sought to broaden the geographic diversity of the College of Cardinals.
The Asia-Pacific region — where Catholicism is growing the fastest — has got several new cardinals with the elevation of the archbishop of Tokyo, the bishop of Kalookan, Philippines, and the bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia.
Francis has also tapped Indian prelate George Jacob Koovakad to become a cardinal. The priest, who belongs to the southern Indian state of Kerala, has been organizing the pope's foreign travels.
dvv/sms (AP, AFP, dpa, KNA)