Pope Francis creates this Saturday twenty new cardinals during a ceremony that he will preside in the basilica of Saint Peter. Sixteen of them, aged under 80, will be electors in the event of a conclave. Among them are the Archbishop of Marseille, but also many Asians.
With our correspondent in the Vatican, Eric Senanque
Among the new cardinals is Jean-Marc Aveline, the Archbishop of Marseille who represents this openness to the Mediterranean dear to Pope Francis and who becomes the first French cardinal since 2015 created by the sovereign pontiff.
Francis has chosen atypical figures such as the young Italian missionary Giorgio Marengo, apostolic administrator of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia and who, at 48, will become the youngest of the cardinals. A consistory that looks towards Asia since six cardinals come from the region, such as the Archbishop of Singapore Mgr William Goh Seng Chye or the Indian Mgr Anthony Poola, at the head of the diocese of Hyderhabad who will become the first Dalit to receive a cardinal’s bar.
Africa is not forgotten either with the Nigerian Peter Okpaleke, bishop of Ekwulobia and the Ghanaian Richard Kuuia Baawobr, the bishop of Wa. Without forgetting Brazil which sees two new cardinals joining the Sacred College, the archbishops of Manaus and Brasilia.
Only three of the new cardinals come from the Roman Curia. This consistory, the eighth of the pontificate of the Argentine pope, confirms the decline of Europe within the college of cardinals. All the cardinals will meet on Monday August 29 and Tuesday August 30 around the pope to discuss the new apostolic constitution of the Roman Curia which will come into effect in June.