The bishops come from remote nations like Uruguay, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, and Tonga; as well as from the Asian cities of Bangkok, Yangon, and Hanoi. In a surprising snub, no new cardinals from the United States were named.
The wide-ranging choice of new cardinals also reinforces and enriches church leadership in areas where Catholicism is actually growing. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, for example, the number of Catholics has increased from 14 million in 1910 to 131 million in 2010, according to a report by Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. (In fact, the pope is currently on his second trip to Asia.) Similarly, the Catholic share of the population in sub-Saharan Africa has risen from 1 percent a century ago to 21 percent in 2010.
These 15 new members of the College of Cardinals, all of them under 80, will be eligible to vote for the next pope, which makes a true global balance of power more likely. Not too long ago, the majority of cardinals came from a single country: Italy.
Still, many have raised legitimate questions about the pope’s strategy of bringing in fresh blood and new voices. John L. Allen Jr. of the Globe-affiliated website Crux warns of “other possible consequences to consider of bypassing the usual suspects.” He writes: “Prelates who have no Vatican experience, who don’t speak Italian, and who don’t themselves have the experience of running a large and complex ecclesiastical operation, may feel a natural tendency to defer to the old hands — generally meaning the same Vatican mandarins whom Francis recently excoriated for suffering from ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s’ and the ‘terrorism of gossip.’”
A fair point, perhaps. But Francis has repeatedly shown a willingness to take risks, and he should be celebrated for that. This move is essentially a reflection of the profound change in the demographic composition of the church. It’s also a step in the right direction as Francis challenges and transforms the church’s power structure. Some criticize Francis for being all talk about transformation. With these new appointments, his actions back up the rhetoric.
Related:
• Austen Ivereigh: Can Pope Francis heal the deep divisions in Christianity?
• 2013 | Alex Beam: How the Jesuit perspective influences Pope Francis