Pope Francis consolidates his geopolitical vision in the Church with the appointment of 20 cardinals

With Pope Francis the peripheries are slowly becoming the center of the Church.

This is a huge change in trend compared to the past that is perfectly perceived in the creation of new cardinals called to elect the future pontiff in the next conclave.

Bergoglio has definitively left behind the trend of the previous Popes, less aware of the peripheral countries and has given a geopolitical turn to the Catholic institution.

It is a fact that his pontificate represents a turning point in the history of the Church.

Francisco, 85 years old, has appointed this Saturday, in an unprecedented consistory in the middle of August, a group of new cardinals that perfectly reflects his pontificate and his intention to start a process, which will be long and complex, to decentralize the government of the church.

The Argentine pontiff has created 20 cardinals, of which 16, due to their age - under eighty - will have the right to vote in the next conclave of the Sistine Chapel.

Of these, 6, that is to say 37%, come from peripheral, poor countries where Christianity represents a tiny part of the population.

The total number of cardinals increases to 226 and the electors go from 116 to 132. Of this select group, 83, about 63%, are creatures of Francis;

38 of Benedict XVI and 11 of John Paul II.

Non-voters will rise from 90 to 94. The distribution of the College of Cardinals and the geographical and political balances have completely changed with Francis.

In 2013, when the Argentine came to the pontificate, Asia and Oceania had 11 cardinal electors.

After this consistory, the eighth for Bergoglio, they have reached 24 and some even come from areas that had never had cardinals before and where the percentage of Catholics is minimal, such as East Timor, Singapore or Mongolia.

The map made up of the red caps of the Church today traces the perimeter of an organization where the peripheries gain weight, while the traditional centers of power of Christianity, such as Europe and specifically Italy, are progressively losing influence.

On a numerical level, Europe goes from 60 to 54. The decrease in Italian electors is also notable, which in 2013 were 28 and at the end of next year, when some turn 80, they will remain at 14.

Francis has asked the new cardinals for "meekness, fidelity, closeness and tenderness" and has called them to "courageously take care of both big and small things".

He has also proposed the example of the late Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, architect of the Vatican

, under which he led, in the midst of the Cold War, the Holy See's dialogue with the communist countries of Eastern Europe.

"And God forbid that the myopia of the human being closes again those horizons that He opened!", He has pointed out.

Francis has also decided to take advantage of the occasion to hold a meeting this Monday and Tuesday with all the cardinals of the world to discuss the new Apostolic Constitution,

, which entered into force last June and reforms the organization of the Curia, the administration of the Catholic Church.

It will be the first time that the cardinals who will elect the next pontiff will face each other, so inevitably the airs of a conclave have already begun to blow, fueled by recent rumors of a hypothetical resignation of Francis due to his state of health and the visit that he will do this Sunday in L'Aquila to pay homage to Celestino V, the first Pope to resign from the pontificate.

Francisco has confirmed that the door of resignation is open for him, although he has recently indicated that the time has not yet come to cross it.

Francis biographer Austen Ivereigh, author of

believes that at this vital moment in the life of the Church and for the College of Cardinals, it is important for cardinals to meet and talk to each other, “to discern where the Church and where the world is, what is needed at this time… which, on the other hand, is what is done in a conclave”.

“The meeting will study the new Constitution, very important for the pontificate.

Francisco will tell them: 'They chose me for this, here it is, I want them to understand it, to assimilate it, to go and do the same,'" the writer tells this newspaper.

He also highlights the revolutionary criteria that he has introduced for the election of cardinals, which move away from the traditional image of

The Argentine pontiff is drawing a profile of cardinals alien to the lineage of the great centers of power and far from the Roman epicenter.

“Before, it was necessary to be the archbishop of a metropolitan diocese with a large concentration of Catholics or to be the head of a Vatican department;

Instead, Francis chooses people from countries with very few Catholics, who are not archbishops —sometimes not even bishops—, and who are exceptional in the mission they have or who are in areas of delicate situation (border places, interreligious spaces, countries where there is persecution...)”, says Ivereigh: “Francisco has been gradually introducing this type of appointments and combining them with the traditional ones”.

An example is the appointment in this consistory of Jean-Marc Aveline, Metropolitan Archbishop of Marseilles (France), born in Algeria.

Like that of Anthony Poola, from Hyderabad (India) and belonging to the Dalit or untouchables ethnic group, the poorest and most discriminated members of Indian society, whom Francis promoted in 2020 by naming him archbishop of his diocese.

Or the missionary Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a country bordering China with a very small Catholic population;

or the Nigerian Peter Ebere Okpaleke, Bishop of Ekwulobia, who was rejected by the faithful in the diocese of Ahiara for being of Igbo ethnicity in Mbaise territory.

"With this appointment Francis is saying very clearly that there can be no tribalism in the Church," says the writer.

And he adds:

This is one of the most geopolitical consistories of Pope Francis with which he will stamp his authority, personal imprint and identity on the College of Cardinals that will elect the next pontiff.

“Bergoglio's interest is to align the Church with globalization.

He is a fundamentally political Pope.

A universal Church means that the missionaries go to the whole world, but with a Roman-

instead, a globalized Church involves decentralizing the production of ideas from the usual centers of European power.

The ruling class of the Church is globalizing like never before in history.

The first non-European Pope has transferred the weight of the next conclave to the emerging continents”, says Piero Schiavazzi, journalist and professor of Vatican Geopolitics at Link Campus University.

Francis' main goal is to turn Asia into one of the new centers of the Church, even though on the continent Catholics make up only about 3% of the population.

"It means that today the Church is irrelevant in the continent of the future," explains Schiavazzi.

Francisco has initiated a process to end this numerical irrelevance.

"For him, Asia has become a necessity: he knows that either the Church goes to Asia or it stays out of history," explains the expert.

On this path towards the Church of the future, countries with very high percentages of the Catholic population, above 80%, such as Ireland or Austria, have only one cardinal in the college of cardinals, as well as other places such as Myanmar or Bangladesh, where Catholics represent less than 1% of the total population.

“In Lithuania, for example, practically everyone is Catholic and with the current composition of the college of cardinals it would be left out of the conclave, because it does not have any cardinals.

Francis has totally changed the geographical distribution of the conclave”, values ​​Schiavazzi.

One of the new cardinals is the Korean Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Vatican dicastery for the Clergy, since 2021. “Vocations are falling in Europe and North America, in South America they are stagnating, they are only growing in Africa and in Asia, that is why Francis has placed an Asian in charge of the department for the clergy”, points out Schiavazzi.

The expert sees these movements of the Argentine pontiff as "a bet for the future."

In this consistory, Francis has named Robert Walter McElroy, archbishop of San Diego, in California, United States, who follows a progressive line, a minority in the country's episcopate and more aligned with Francis.

He has even positioned himself against the "sanctions policy" that proposes denying communion to politicians who defend abortion, such as President Joe Biden.

“This is an example of a political appointment.

It had never happened that Los Angeles did not have a cardinal;

Francis has not made the Archbishop of Los Angeles [José Horacio Gómez] a cardinal, although the American episcopate appointed him president of the Episcopal Conference in 2019, because he is a conservative.”

Power in the Church is sustained by a fragile balance between geography, politics and ideology.

“Bergoglio's priority is to spread the church and at the same time keep it cohesive.

He has to be able to pilot the whole herd together.

He is carrying out a reforming attempt in a prudent way, ”says Schiavazzi.

For example, in this consistory Francis has appointed Richard Kuuia Baawobr, bishop of Wa, in Ghana, as a cardinal, who has asked the country's authorities to intensify the penalties against homosexuality, considered a crime there.

However, in the last consistory of 2019 he made Jean-Claude Hollerich, current president of the Commission of Episcopal Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), a cardinal, who considers that the Catholic Church should stop considering homosexuality a sin.

“The Pope must dose the appointments.

He has to prevent each continent from going their own way, giving representation to everyone, but then moderately gives prevalence to the progressive wing, ”says Schiavazzi.

And he adds: “It is a moment of transition in the Church full of contradictions, Francis is trying to establish a progressive line,

but moderate, prudent;

let's say that he governs the Church from the center-left”.

The expert defines the magisterium of Francis as a "mixture of utopia and

", because he is creating "pastors in places where there is still no flock, with hope for the future" and at the same time he is showing an "imposing pragmatism", also with clear signals to Russia and China, with whom it tries to avoid any collision.

“It has not given any cardinal to Taiwan, a country with a greater presence of Catholics compared to others in Asia that do have cardinals, and it has not given cardinals to Ukraine, which right now would be left out of the conclave, to avoid a clash with the Orthodox patriarch, something unthinkable with other previous pontiffs, the disruption between pontificates is clearly seen there, ”estimates Piero Schiavazzi.

Salamanca Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, religious of the Legionaries of Christ, has become one of the nine Spanish cardinals with the right to vote.

This gesture illustrates the confidence of the Pope, who has already appointed him civil governor of the Vatican City State.

The presence of Spaniards has been exceptionally maintained in all of Francisco's consistories.

The “rehabilitation” of Cardinal Becciu

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, suspended from his position by Francis and without cardinal rights since 2020, for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities in the Vatican, has participated in the celebration of the consistory.

According to the cardinal, who was a substitute for the Secretary of State for General Affairs (2011-2018), where the Vatican administration is managed and later prefect of the congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pontiff "has reinstated him."

Although according to the Vatican media, the rights of a cardinal do not refer to participation in the life of the Church, something accessible to any baptized Christian.

Therefore, the fact that he has received an invitation to the celebration does not necessarily mean that he has regained his cardinal faculties.

The Italian cardinal has been facing a trial for months in which he is charged with nine other people for financial irregularities in the management of the funds of the Vatican Secretary of State and during which he has always defended his innocence.

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