VATICAN CITY
International Business Times
By Christopher White
on January 08 2014
Next month Pope Francis will install the first new cardinals of his papacy. Cardinals are the highest-ranking clergy in the Church and the College of Cardinals will be responsible for selecting his eventual successor. While no names have been announced, there’s already much speculation as to what considerations Pope Francis might weigh in naming his appointees.
Ideally, the Cardinals should reflect the composition of the Church worldwide, hence geography is always a critical factor. Historically, there has always been a large contingent of European cardinals—specifically, Italian—with the global south being underrepresented. Given Francis’s South American heritage, he might look to balance out the electorate by naming more Cardinals from South America, Africa, or Asia.
There’s also the question of doctrinal priorities. We might gain some insights into the type of future Church that Francis is hoping to shape by looking at the type of men whom he’ll appoint. Will they be “social justice” bishops or are might they more concerned with cultural matters such as abortion, marriage, and religious liberty?
Yet, these types of questions often focus on potential divides within the Church. What we’ve seen thus far in Pope Francis’s leadership style is that he’s far more interested in its unity. At the same time, Francis is not shying away from the fact that the role of the Church is to religiously inform a public philosophy on how to best create a society that establishes the best conditions for liberty, human happiness and prosperity.
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