On Saturday, Pope Francis has elevated 13 Catholic clergy to the cardinal state. Ten of them are under the age of 80 and thus entitled to participate in the papal election in the case of a conclave.
Francis has already selected more than half of Cardinals eligible to vote - most of them clergymen who share his positions on social justice, migrants' rights and dialogue with Islam. By doing so, he increases the likelihood that his successor in office will continue his policy through personnel policy.
The future College of Cardinals will be more international than ever before in church history. 68 countries are represented in the body - nearly half of the eligible cardinals come from developing countries.
Francis had in the past deliberately considered countries that had never set a cardinal, such as Haiti, Papua New Guinea or the Central African Republic. He was trying to counterbalance the powerful cardinals of Europe or the United States.
Some of the new cardinals have been recommended for their office, including through their social commitment:
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Alvaro Leonazz Ramazzini Imeri , 72, from Guatemala, is fighting drug-related crime and violence, exploitation and environmental degradation caused by major mining projects, and is campaigning for the rights of farm workers and refugees. He opposed multinational corporations, launched anti-pollution campaigns and was threatened.
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Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny , 73, has worked with poor people in El Salvador and Kenya and is currently the migration expert for the Vatican. He repeatedly called for a more open EU refugee policy as well as more anti-trafficking and exploitation efforts worldwide. In May, the Pope appointed him special secretary to the Amazon Synod, which begins on Sunday at the Vatican.
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Finally, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich , 61, from Luxembourg, has spoken out against Europe's populists, declaring that they play a "shameful game" by fueling fear of migrants and Muslims.
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Italian Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi , 63, Archbishop of Bologna, comes from the Community of Sant'Egidio, which looks after the poor, migrants, the homeless and refugees worldwide.
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Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu , 59, Archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has defended Catholics who have demonstrated for democracy. At the International Court of Justice in The Hague he reported on the activities of local warlords.
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Cardinal Sigitas Tamkevicius , 80, of Lithuania spent many years in the Siberian Gulags for "anti-Soviet agitation" for having entered religious freedom in the former Soviet Union. The later Archbishop of Kaunas did forced labor and was used among other things in the marshes in the canal construction.
Two Cardinals are active in Muslim countries: the Indonesian Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, archbishop of Jakarta, and the Spaniard Cristóbal López Romero, archbishop of the Moroccan capital Rabat. For him, his appointment is an encouragement to the Catholic communities of North Africa, Romero said, according to Vatican News. The pope wanted to make visible Christian communities that were almost invisible.
Of the 128 cardinals eligible to vote, Italy still has a relative overweight with 23 purple carriers. This is followed by the USA with nine cardinals and Spain with six. Germany, where about 27 percent of the population still belong to the Catholic Church, has three voting cardinals: Reinhard Marx, Gerhard Ludwig Müller and Rainer Maria Woelki. Among the 97 non-voting cardinals are five other Germans.
