Pope Francis, who is dealing with the infirmities of age and does not rule out resigning for health reasons, is preparing his succession with the investiture of 20 new cardinals, 16 of them with the right to vote in the conclave for the election of his successor.
The 85-year-old Argentine pope summoned all the world’s cardinals for an unprecedented two-day meeting tomorrow, which will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
“This meeting is very important because it hasn’t been done since 2015, also because 20 new cardinals who come from being bishops will be created. With the formation of this new college of cardinals, various topics will be discussed in the coming days, including the canonization of some blessed, this would be the first meeting that the new cardinals will have, “explained Camilo Andrés Gálvez, theologian and philosopher.
This new college of cardinals, which will be made up of a total of 226 cardinals (between electors and non-electors), is a support and advice team for the pope on specific issues. In tomorrow’s meeting various topics will be discussed, such as, for example, the reform of the Roman curia, that is, an issue linked to the structure and form of government within the Church.
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Dedicated to the reform of the Pontifical Constitution, approved in March and in force since June 5, the convocation of the almost 300 cardinals will also turn out to be a kind of pre-conclave in which, in addition, a balance will be made of the situation of the church in the last decade.
This meeting has also lent itself to all kinds of speculation. One is that due to the state of health of the pope, who underwent colon surgery in 2021 and these days suffers from pain in his right knee that prevents him from walking and forces him to use a wheelchair, he does not rule out the possibility of giving up the position in which he has been for ten years.
“Changing the pope would not be a catastrophe,” Francis said at the end of July during a trip to Canada, although he explained that “I haven’t thought regarding that possibility, but that doesn’t mean that the day following tomorrow I won’t think regarding it.”
“The pope has health problems, yes, but experience has shown that many popes, despite illnesses, have lasted many years in the pontificate and those difficulties were not an impediment,” said Gálvez.
With the investiture of the new cardinals, the first Latin American pope in history proposes for his succession religious from the peripheries of the world, surely more open, less accustomed to the intrigues of the Roman Curia.
In the list of 16 cardinals who are under 80 years old, with the right to vote in the event of a conclave due to the resignation or death of the pope, there are three Latin Americans: two Brazilians and one Paraguayan, the archbishop of Asunción. A fourth is added to this list: a Colombian who is over 80 years old and therefore will not be able to participate in the election of the future pontiff.
