Pope Set to Name Cardinals to Reflect His Vision of the Church

[onehandle]

Source: New York Times

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is set to make the most important decisions of his young papacy in the next few weeks by naming new cardinals - the "princes of the Church" who will help him set its future course and one day elect his successor from their number. A pope's choice of cardinals is one of the clearest signals of the direction in which he wants the 1.2 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church to go, and what type of man he wants to succeed him.

Francis immediately set about changing the Vatican's image with his simple style after his election last March, so his choice of clerics to elevate on February 22 is more eagerly awaited than usual. He is expected to reveal his choices before the end of January so that preparations for the ceremonial "consistory" can be made, but so far there have been few if any whispers of likely names.

In the past, it was a fairly safe bet that archbishops of big dioceses or those heading Vatican departments traditionally headed by cardinals would get the three-peaked "biretta", the red ceremonial hat that cardinals wear. But Francis, who renounced the spacious papal suite for a modest apartment in a Vatican guest house, and is driven around in a simple Ford Focus instead of a bulletproof Mercedes limousine, has shown little regard for precedent or tradition.

"He will feel very free to choose the people he thinks should be in those positions, regardless of what was done before," said Father Antonio Spadaro, the editor of the Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica who interviewed the pope last summer. "Certainly it will help us further understand where he wants the Church to go."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/01/07/world/europe/07reuters-pope-cardinals.html

[Gore1FL]

1. This could be interesting.

Though my favorite new Cardinals are Bourgis, Peralta, and Ellis.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Congratulations Cardinal Goldstein!

Your husband must be very proud!

[NCarolinawoman]

3. I am looking forward to seeing who he'll be choosing...

Here's hoping.....

[LiberalElite]

4. "princes of the Church"

I always hated that expression.

[FairWinds]

5. Yes, go for it Francis !!

The U.S. papal nuncio is the most powerful office in the US church.
That's the first thing JP II changed to purge the progressive bishops after Juan XXIII.
Glad to see that Francis is not wasting time - fingers crossed.
If this keeps up, I will totally go back to the Church.

[840high]

6. Good.

[MellowDem]

7. A man as bigoted as the Pope...

Leading an institutionally bigoted institution, will likely pick all bigots. There are more progressive people in the Republican Party than the Pope. I'm hoping all bigoted institutions go away.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. My prediction, all male, all anti choice sexists, all anti gay homophobes

nt

[mackerel]

8. please Pope Francis

get rid of Roger Mahony!

[Bluenorthwest]

11. Mahony's vote helped elect Francis. Francis calls him a Prince of The Church!!!!!

In the files, memos written by Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, then the archdiocese's chief advisor on sex abuse cases, offered the strongest evidence yet of a concerted effort by officials to shield abusers from police

http://www.latimes.com/local/priestabuse/#axzz2poKxuXXw

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Princes of the Chruch? Wowser~here's a 'Prince' if that's what they call it....

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee.
Questioned at the time about the news that one particularly notorious pedophile cleric had been given a “payoff” to leave the priesthood, Cardinal Dolan, then the archbishop, responded that such an inference was “false, preposterous and unjust.”

But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/cardinal-authorized-payments-to-abusers.html?_r=0

See, to me that's not a prince, that's a criminal, a liar, a fraud. But he's Top Prince in America and often speaks for Francis. Think about it folks.