On Sunday, Pope Francis announced that he will be elevating 14 churchmen from five continents as cardinals, picking them based on their work for the poor or if they are from a country with a small Catholic population. He also put a stamp on the group that will determine who will be his successor.
The announcement was a shock as he included it in his weekly Sunday address, stressing that the new cardinals would hail from Italy, Portugal, Iraq, Japan, Peru, Bolivia, Spain, Poland, Pakistan, Madagascar and Mexico.
These cardinals will be given their traditional red hats in a consistory on June 29.
At least 11 of these churchmen are under 80, enabling them to enter the secret conclave that will be called to the Vatican to elect the new pope once Pope Francis passes away or decides to retire.
The addition of the 14 churchmen will bring the elector cardinals up to 125, five more than the 120 limit established by Pope Paul VI for a conclave. Since 2013, Pope Francis had named almost half of this group.
It is also the fifth consistory under Francis' tenure and each consistory would always include a special part on where he will show his support to the Churches were there is a small population, like Iraq, Japan and Pakistan for this newest rendition. Both Iraq and Pakistan's churches have faced immense suffering and discrimination for the past years, something the Pope has railed against. With the elevation of its churchment, the Pope is sending his support to these local churches.
Down below are the names of the 14 new cardinals of the Church:
- Louis Raphaël I Sako, 69, Chaldean Catholic patriarch of Babylon
- Angelo De Donatis, 64, vicar general of Rome
- Joseph Coutts, 72, archbishop of Karachi
- António dos Santos Marto, 71, bishop of Leiria-Fatima
- Pedro Barreto, 74, archbishop of Huancayo, Peru
- Desiré Tsarahazana, 63, archbishop of Toamasina, Madagascar
- Giuseppe Petrocchi, 69, archbishop of L'Aquila
- Thomas Aquinas Manyo, 69, archbishop of Osaka, Japan
- Spanish bishop Luis Ladaria, 74
- Konrad Krajewski, 54, from Poland
- Italian archbishop Angelo Becciu, 69
