Ergo, at today's noontime Regina Caeli from the Window of the Apostolic Palace, Papa Bergoglio called a Consistory – his fourth – on the vigil of Peter and Paul, 28 June, for the creation of 5 new cardinals, all of them electors:
- Archbishop Jean Zerbo of Bamako, Mali (73)
- Archbishop Juan José Omella of Barcelona (71)
- Bishop Anders Arborelius OCD of Stockholm (67)
- Bishop Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, vicar-apostolic of Paksé, Laos (73)
- Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez, auxiliary of San Salvador (74)
With the new additions, the electoral College will return to 121 members – one over the now-traditional limit of 120 set by Blessed Paul VI in 1975.
Following quickly on the heels of November's intake of 17 new cardinals, while some buzz has circulated over recent weeks tipping a late June encore, the rumors had foreseen what would've been a historic super-sizing of the voting ranks – an idea which has circulated for some time, possibly ballooning the group of papal voters as high as 145 members. (Even on a temporary basis, there is precedent for such a move: at his last Consistory before the Jubilee Year of 2000, now-St John Paul II had expanded the voting College to 135 cardinals by elevating 37 prelates younger than 80.)
In any case, even if the final Biglietto is smaller than expected, the group strikes a fresh blow for the inclusion of the church's "peripheries" in the ranks of the Pope's "Senate" – with the exception of Omella, each of the cardinals-designate are the first from their respective nations. The first native Swede named a bishop since the Reformation (after centuries of missionaries), Arborelius will be the first ever to reside in Scandinavia. And in the choice of Rosa, at least for the first time in the post-Conciliar period, an auxiliary bishop has been given the red hat.
Developing – more to come.
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by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia
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