There are two takeaways from the eighth batch of cardinals in the pontificate, announced by Pope Francis on Sunday.
A Frenchman, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, 63, is first on the list of 21 newly promoted.
This brings the number of French cardinals to six, with Philippe Barbarin, Dominique Mamberti, Paul Poupard, Jean-Pierre Ricard, André Vingt-Trois.
At 92, however, Cardinal Poupard could not enter the conclave which elects the pope, but in November Cardinal Vingt-Trois, former archbishop of Paris, will also exceed the 80-year limit which prevents any cardinal to elect a pope.
Five cardinal electors for France is not, however, dishonoring.
By comparison, the United States has ten, although Italy has twenty!
The promotion of Jean-Marc Aveline is not a surprise, and it is not the first time that an archbishop of Marseille has received this title, after Bernard Panafieu, who died in 2017, and…
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