Pope Francis will on Saturday install 21 new cardinals from five continents, many of whom could one day help elect his successor.
The move marks Francis’ 10th consistory to create new so-called “princes” of the Catholic Church since he became pope in 2013.
It is the biggest infusion of voting-age cardinals in Francis’ pontificate.
With the new additions, the pope would have created 110 of the 140 cardinals under 80, thus eligible to vote in a conclave.
Cardinals from Africa and Asia
The appointments also come as 87-year-old Francis looks to cement his legacy as the head of a more inclusive and universal institution.
Five bishops from Latin America, including from Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina, two from Africa’s Ivory Coast and Algeria and the archbishop of Tehran are among those being elevated to cardinal.
“There hasn’t been an African pope, but it’s a possibility in the church,” Ignace Bessi Dogbo, the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, said in an interview a day before his installation.
“I think that this eventuality — which is not necessarily a demand — if this eventuality were to arise, the universal church would have to be ready to take it on,” he added.
Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has long sought to broaden the geographic diversity of the College of Cardinals.
The Asia-Pacific region — where Catholicism is growing the fastest — has got several new cardinals with the elevation of the archbishop of Tokyo, the bishop of Kalookan, Philippines, and the bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia.
Francis has also tapped Indian prelate George Jacob Koovakad to become a cardinal. The priest, who belongs to the southern Indian state of Kerala, has been organizing the pope’s foreign travels.
Saturday’s ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. (1500 UTC/GMT) at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
dvv/sms (AP, AFP, KNA)
