Snubs and Surprises: Making Sense of Pope Francis' Latest ...

Whenever Pope Francis announces a new batch of cardinals, journalists rush to offer an interpretive lens for understanding the selections. The truth is, however, that there is often more than one explanatory thread running through the list of new cardinals — and often through each individual pick themselves.

That certainly seems to be the case regarding the 21 new cardinals announced by Pope Francis on Oct. 6. Themes like geographic diversity, personal connections, and rewarding those who have aligned with papal priorities (and repudiating those who haven’t), run through the group of prelates, who will receive their red hats at a consistory to be held on Dec. 8, the 10th consistory convened by Francis in his 11-year papacy.

Here are six angles for understanding who the new cardinals are and why Pope Francis might have picked them.

1. Surprising Picks for Australia and Ukraine 

Prior to Sunday’s announcement, some observers noted that the College of Cardinals lacked any representatives from either the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — a notable omission, given the ongoing war in Ukraine — or the Church in Australia, which hasn’t had a cardinal since Cardinal George Pell’s death in January 2023.

Pope Francis has remedied that now, but not in a way anyone expected — and probably not in a way that will make either Australians or Ukrainian Greek Catholics particularly happy.

In one of the more surprising picks, Pope Francis named 44-year-old Bishop Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Catholic eparchy in Melbourne, Australia, as a cardinal. In doing so, he passed over two other high-ranking prelates: Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Kyiv-based primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who has been critical of Pope Francis’ handling of the war, and Archbishop Anthony Fisher, Cardinal Pell’s successor as both the ordinary of Sydney and as Australia’s most high-profile Catholic leader.

In other words, the Ukrainian Greek Catholics have a cardinal, but it’s not their top man, who has emerged as heroic leader amid a horrible war; and Australia gets one as well, but he’s not particularly representative of the island’s 5 million Catholics, who are mostly of the Latin Rite.

While Bishop Bychok is likely a fine leader, his selection may be perceived by some Australian and Ukrainian Greek Catholics as less than ideal, because it signals that neither Archbishop Shevchuk nor Archbishop Fisher will be likely to get a red hat any time soon.

2. The Lens of Fiducia 

Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s controversial December 2023 document on same-sex blessings, is another key lens for making sense of who made the list of new cardinals — and who was left off.

For instance, Pope Francis chose Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, a French Dominican who leads the Church in Algiers and joined his brother bishops in North Africa in offering a mild defense of the document. 

Likewise, another pick, Serbian Cardinal-elect Archbishop Ladislav Nemet, seemed to offer a more hospitable reception of Fiducia Supplicans than the average Eastern European prelate, underscoring that the blessing was not endorsing same-sex sexual unions, but also saying that the desire of same-sex couples to receive a blessing was an instance of the modern world “discovering truths ... faster than we do on the basis of biblical revelation and tradition.”

Meanwhile, the vibrant, Indigenous-led Catholic Church in sub-Saharan Africa — where resistance to Fiducia Supplicans was most vocal and strong — will have only one cardinal added to the college, Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. 

In fact, while Asia and Latin America both will receive five new cardinals, which will expand both continents’ proportional representation in the College of Cardinals, Africa’s slim pickings at the upcoming consistory will actually diminish the continent’s voice in the college — and in a papal conclave. By getting just 2 of the 20 new cardinal-electors (those under age 80), the continent’s share of votes falls from 13.1% to 12.7%, an apparent reversal of Francis’ much ballyhooed preference for giving the Global South more of a say in Church affairs.

The absence of notable Africans like Cameroon’s Archbishop Andrew Nkea, who has led the country’s episcopal conference amidst a war in his home archdiocese, or Kenyan prelates like Archbishop Maurice Muhatia or Archbishop Phillip Anyolo, is conspicuous, and the continent’s less-than-warm reception of Fiducia Supplicans likely has something to do with it.

Archbishop Shevchuk has also spoken out against Fiducia Supplicans, perhaps giving Pope Francis another reason to pass him over.

3. Cardinalatial Sees

When it comes to handing out red hats, Pope Francis has made a habit of passing over leaders of so-called cardinalatial sees, significant archdioceses that traditionally are led by a cardinal. He’s done it again, as major sees like Paris, Milan and Los Angeles were bypassed once more. Each of those three sees has lacked a cardinal for more than seven years.

On the other hand, the leader of the cardinalatial see in Lima, Archbishop Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, was named a new cardinal, albeit after waiting for four years. Toronto’s Archbishop Francis Leo’s wait was far shorter: The 53-year-old will be made a cardinal at the second consistory to take place since his March 25, 2023, installation. And Archbishop Roberto Repole will also be made a cardinal after less than three years as the head of Turin, Italy — even though his predecessor, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia, never received a red hat in 12 years.

The takeaway is that Francis hasn’t completely stopped elevating leaders of cardinalatial sees. Instead, he picks and chooses which among these prelates he wants to give a red hat to — which, critics contend, completely defeats the purpose of having a set of traditional cardinlatial sees. 

The idea is that by having dioceses where the leaders become a cardinal by default, papal politics come less into play, allowing for a more naturally balanced Church. Unless the man occupying a cardinalatial see is completely unqualified, he should receive his red hat in due time, whether or not his particular theological or pastoral emphases align with the current pontiff. 

But Pope Francis has shaken up this practice, which will likely have ramifications well beyond his own papacy.

4. Looking at Legacy — and the Next 20 Years

Analyses that contend Pope Francis is “stacking” the College of Cardinals to ensure that his ideological heir is elected to succeed him usually miss the mark. The fact is that by dramatically expanding the geographic makeup of the college, Pope Francis has ensured that the next conclave will be even more unpredictable than usual.

But that doesn’t mean that the Pope isn’t leaving his mark on the College of Cardinals with the upcoming consistory.

Seven of the 21 cardinals named by the Holy Father are under 60 years old. This means that several members of this batch of cardinals will be voting in papal conclaves for the next 20-plus years. While they might not share all of Francis’ particular views, they will be forever connected to him biographically, ensuring that we’ll be talking about the current pontiff and his impact for many years to come.

Finally, as the first pope from Latin America, who has drawn heavily upon the region’s own Catholic practice in his governance of the universal Church, Francis has ensured that his home continent will continue to have influence in Rome, naming new cardinals from Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Chile and his native Argentina.

5. Francis’ Priorities

Many other Pope Francis priorities were symbolically reflected in his choice of new cardinals.

For instance, the pope that has traveled to more countries per annum than even St. John Paul II made the unprecedented move of tapping the Secretariat of State official responsible for organizing his papal trips, Msgr. George Jacob Koovakad, to be a cardinal. 

Additionally, Pope Francis underscored his commitment to addressing the plight of migrants by naming the immigration-focused undersecretary of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, Father Fabbio Baggio, a cardinal. Francis did the same thing in 2020, with Cardinal Michael Czerny, who was then the dicastery’s undersecretary but has since been promoted to its prefect.

The first Jesuit Pope also made a point of elevating members of religious communities, as 10 of the 21 new cardinals are religious.

He also named Father Timothy Radcliffe, the English Dominican who Francis tapped to be the “spiritual director” of the Synod on Synodality, to the college, underscoring the importance of the synod to his legacy and continuing to rehabilitate previously sidelined theologians in one fell swoop. Formerly the master of the Order of Preachers, Cardinal-elect Radcliffe has irked previous pontiffs for his support for same-sex relationships over the years.

6. No American Picks

Every time a new consistory is announced, Americans scan the names to see if the archbishop of Los Angeles is among them.

And just like every other consistory held since Francis became pope in 2013, Archbishop José Gomez’s name was not listed, despite being the ordinary of America’s biggest diocese.

While Archbishop Gomez’s nonappearance has come to be expected at this point, it was somewhat surprising to not find a single American on Pope Francis’ list. Given that Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston turned 80 this past summer and is now no longer eligible to partake in a papal conclave, there had been speculation that Francis could create a new American cardinal at the next consistory. Francis has used the red hat to try to dramatically reshape influence within the U.S. episcopacy, naming cardinals who tend to be far more progressive than the typical American bishop, such as Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego.

The fact that he didn’t name an American cardinal this time around suggests that he couldn’t find a candidate in the vein of Cardinal Cupich — or that the Holy Father is no longer interested in reshaping the U.S. Church by means of cardinal appointments. Whatever the reason, it means American statistical representation in the College of Cardinals will drop at the Dec. 8 consistory, down to 7% from 8.2% today and from 9.4% in 2013.