Pope Francis to pick new cardinals and begin reshaping the hierarchy

January 8, 2014

Pope Francis to pick new cardinals and begin reshaping the hierarchy

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service
David Gibson | Jan 6, 2014
(RNS) Any day now, Pope Francis is expected to make his first appointments to the College of Cardinals, the select group of about 120 scarlet-clad churchmen whose main duty is to advise the pope while he reigns – and gather in the Sistine Chapel when he dies or resigns to name his successor.
That makes the nominations especially critical, and they will be another indicator of what direction Francis wants to push the church’s leadership. As the Rev. Thomas Reese of National Catholic Reporter put it in his analysis of the importance of the choices: “People in red hats tend to stand out in a crowd.”
The Vatican has announced that Francis will officially “create” the new cardinals (that is the technical church term for the papal appointments) on Feb. 22, and the list of names is usually released weeks in advance.
Canon law provides a ceiling of 120 eligible electors among the cardinals; those who turn 80 no longer have the right to vote in a conclave. As of Feb. 1, there will be 106 cardinals under 80, giving Francis 14 vacancies to fill, though he can use his papal prerogative and exceed that limit. The late John Paul II pushed the number of cardinal-electors to 135 at one point.