Pope names 15 new cardinals

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals Sunday, selecting them from 14 nations including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar to reflect the diversity of the church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa compared to affluent regions.

Other cardinals hail from Ethiopia, Thailand and Vietnam.

None came from the United States and only three European nations received new cardinals – Portugal, Spain and Italy. Cape Verde, Tonga and Myanmar gained cardinals for the first time.

Francis told faithful in St. Peter’s Square that the new batch of cardinals “shows the inseparable tie with the church of Rome to churches in the world.”

Five new cardinals come from Europe, three from Asia, three from Latin America, including Mexico, and two each come from Africa and Oceania.

With his picks, the Argentine-born Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, made ever clearer that he is laying out a new vision of the church’s identity, including of its hierarchy. He looked beyond traditional metropolitan area for the “princes of the church” who will help advise him as he goes forward with church reforms. Cardinals also elect his successor.

He has said repeatedly that the church must reach out to those on the margins.

The pontiff ignored another tradition: limiting to 120 the number of cardinals under 80 and eligible to vote for his successor.

Counting the new cardinals, 125 cardinals will be eligible to vote, although the Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi noted, “he kept very close to it (120), so it was substantially respected.”

Speaking from a Vatican window to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Francis made another surprise announcement. He said that on Feb. 12-13, he will lead a meeting of all cardinals to “reflect on the orientations and proposals for the reform of the Roman Curia,” the Vatican’s administrative bureaucracy.

Francis is using his papacy, which began in March 2013, to root out corruption, inefficiency, careerism and other problems in the curia.