Pope Francis names 1st African-American cardinal, diversifies body that will elect his successor

Pope Francis, in a surprise announcement Sunday, named 13 new cardinals, including Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. When the 13 other cardinals are formally installed Nov. 28, Gregory will be the first Black U.S. cardinal in Catholic history.

Gregory's elevation to the College of Cardinals was expected after the pope named him Washington archbishop in 2019, but Francis also spoke out against the "sin of racism" in June, mentioning George Floyd's "tragic" killing in Minneapolis and saying "we cannot close our eyes to any form of racism or exclusion while pretending to defend the sacredness of every human life." Gregory, formerly archbishop of Atlanta, was also the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops when the child sex abuse scandal broke in 2002. He led the USCCB through an accounting of the human damage and the creation of the U.S. church's "Charter of Protection of Children and Young People."

Gregory, 72, is one of nine new cardinals under age 80, meaning they will be eligible to vote for the next pope. Pope Francis has now chosen 57 percent of the 128 cardinal electors, and "like his predecessors, Francis has appointed men who support his approach to the major issues facing the church," Rev. Thomas Reese writes at Religion News Service. He named two Franciscans, including Rev. Mauro Gambetti, who leads the convent attached to the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Gambetti, who isn't even a bishop, thought the pope was joking when he read his name, a convent spokesman said.

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Along with elevating likeminded Catholic leaders "who are concerned for the poor and are pastoral in their approach to their ministry," Reese says, Pope Francis has also reduced the share of cardinal electors from Europe, the Roman Curia — or Vatican bureaucracy — and the U.S., making the College of Cardinals "more from the global south than it has ever been in the history of the church." Elevating leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America "is the right direction," Reese writes, though "I would have preferred that no curial officials be made cardinals or bishops."