VATICAN CITY: When Pope Francis appoints new Catholic cardinals, as he did on Sunday, the move is often described as the pontiff pushing to influence the group that one day will select his successor.
But while Francis, 87, has now named some 80 percent of the prelates who will choose the next pope, those who study the church say his choices — often of low-profile churchmen from distant countries, many of whom barely know each other — are not meant to smooth the way for a preferred heir.
“The idea that the pope is capable of influencing his successor is not real,” said Alberto Melloni, a church historian at the University of Modena-Reggio Emilia. “It is not even his agenda.”
Geographic diversity is important to Francis, an Argentinian born an ocean away from Rome. Among new cardinals that Francis has named over his 11 years as pope, some two dozen have been the first ever chosen from their home countries, which include Haiti, Myanmar, the Central African Republic and Mongolia.
The 21 new cardinals announced on Sunday hail from countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Italy, Britain, Serbia, Japan, Indonesia, Canada, Ivory Coast and Algeria. One is a Belgian friar serving as archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan in Iran. Another is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic ministering in Australia.
“It’s more about geography than about theology,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia who has chronicled the Francis papacy. “It’s generally about giving voice to those who are in the peripheries ... more than a particular vision of the Church.”
VEERING FROM TRADITION
Church watchers are sometimes surprised by the pope’s picks of figures who are often little known in Rome or lead relatively small Catholic flocks.
He has also veered from tradition that bishops of historically important cities automatically become cardinals. In the US, for example, he has made the bishop of San Diego a cardinal, but not the archbishop of Los Angeles. In Italy, the archbishop of Bologna but not the archbishop of Milan.
“The message is: ‘I have abolished the right of any diocese to have a cardinal as archbishop,’” said Melloni.
Often the choices appear to be influenced by Francis’ preference for what he has called a Church that is “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets.”
In 2019, one of Francis’ picks, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, attracted the ire of Italian politicians by climbing down a manhole in Rome to restore electricity to hundreds of homeless people living in an occupied building.
At the pope’s death or resignation, cardinals enter into a secret conclave, where those under the age of 80 vote on the next pope. At least 67 countries now have cardinals who can vote in a conclave, according to Vatican statistics, compared to fewer than 50 countries when Francis was elected in 2013.
Unlike previous popes, Francis has only rarely called the entire College of Cardinals to Rome for consultation. This, coupled with their geographic spread across the globe, means they are often little known to each other. Many have never met face to face.
“The fact that Francis generally avoids convening cardinals in Rome limits the amount of pre-conclave maneuvering,” said John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for the Catholic News Service who has reported extensively on three papacies.
“The pope’s biggest influence on a future conclave will be in broadening participation and making the election of a pope a more global event.”
Pope Francis’s diverse choices of new cardinals won’t smooth path for successor
https://arab.news/jwqah
Pope Francis’s diverse choices of new cardinals won’t smooth path for successor
- Geographic diversity is important to Francis, an Argentinian born an ocean away from Rome
- Some two dozen cardinals have been the first ever chosen from their home countries
Seven dead in small plane crash in western Mexico
- The aircraft, a Cessna 207, was flying from La Parota in the neighboring state of Michoacan
The aircraft, a Cessna 207, was flying from La Parota in the neighboring state of Michoacan.
Jalisco Civil Protection said via its social media that the crash site was in an area that was difficult to access.
Initial authorities on the scene “reported a preliminary count of seven people dead,” who haven’t been identified yet, according to the agency.
“A fire was extinguished and risk mitigation was carried out to prevent possible additional damage,” it added.
Authorities said they were awaiting the arrival of forensic investigators to remove the bodies and rule out the presence of additional victims.
Canada’s Trudeau losing support within his party: MPs
- Ottawa area MP Chandra Arya: Dozens of Liberal MPs want the prime minister to go
- Trudeau has huddled with advisers to contemplate his future ahead of elections set for October 2025
OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s support within his own party appeared to falter further on Sunday, as former loyalists said growing numbers of Liberal caucus members wanted the premier to resign.
Trudeau has suffered a series of blows in recent days, spurred by the surprise resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who clashed with her boss over incoming US president Donald Trump’s threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.
Freeland’s exit, after nearly a decade at Trudeau’s side, marked the first open dissent against the prime minister from within his cabinet and has emboldened critics.
Ottawa area MP Chandra Arya told the public broadcaster CBC on Sunday that dozens of Liberal MPs wanted Trudeau to go.
Arya was interviewed a day after Liberal MPs from the province of Ontario held a meeting that addressed Trudeau’s future.
Multiple outlets, including the CBC and Toronto Star, reported that more than 50 of the 75 Ontario Liberals in parliament declared in Saturday’s meeting that they no longer supported Trudeau.
Asked about those reports, Arya said a “majority of the caucus thinks it is time for the prime minister to step aside.”
Anthony Housefather, a Liberal member of parliament from the province of Quebec, told the CBC on Sunday that “the prime minister needs to go.”
“We’re in an impossible situation if he stays,” Housefather said, arguing the party would be hammered in an election that amounted to a referendum on Trudeau’s leadership.
Trudeau has huddled with advisers to contemplate his future ahead of elections set for October 2025 but expected much sooner. He changed a third of his cabinet on Friday.
Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the small leftist New Democratic Party in parliament, declared Friday that he would join with other opposition parties to topple Trudeau’s minority government early next year.
The NDP had previously opposed a series of non-confidence votes brought by the opposition Conservatives.
A change in the party’s position would almost certainly bring down Trudeau’s government if another non-confidence vote is held.
Trudeau swept to power in 2015 and led the Liberals to two more ballot box victories in 2019 and 2021.
But he now trails his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, by 20 points in public opinion polls.
Trump names former staffer Katie Miller to Musk-led DOGE panel
- Katie Miller will soon be joining DOGE! She has been a loyal supporter of mine for many years, and will bring her professional experience to Government Efficiency, Trump posts
WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Katie Miller, who served in Trump’s first administration and is the wife of his incoming deputy chief of staff, as one of the first members of an advisory board to be led by billionaire allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy that aims to drastically slash government spending, federal regulations and the federal workforce.
Miller, wife of Trump’s designated homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, will join Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an informal advisory body that Trump has said will enable his administration to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
“Katie Miller will soon be joining DOGE! She has been a loyal supporter of mine for many years, and will bring her professional experience to Government Efficiency,” Trump posted in a message on his social media platform Truth Social.
Musk and Ramaswamy recently revealed plans to wipe out scores of federal regulations crafted by what they say is an anti-democratic, unaccountable bureaucracy, but have yet to announce members of the DOGE team. Musk has said he wants to slash the number of federal agencies from over 400 to 99.
Katie Miller had served in the first Trump adminstration as deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and as press secretary for former Vice President Mike Pence.
She is currently a spokesperson for the transition team for Trump’s designated Health and Human Services secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr.
Panama rejects Trump’s threat to take control of Canal
- Trump also complained of China’s growing influence around the canal, a worrying trend for American interests as US businesses depend on the channel to move goods between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
PANAMA CITY: Panama’s president Jose Raul Mulino on Sunday dismissed recent threats made by US President-elect Donald Trump to retake control of the Panama Canal over complaints of “unfair” treatment of American ships.
“Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas belongs to Panama and will continue belonging to Panama,” Mulino said in a video posted to X.
Mulino’s public comments, though never mentioning Trump by name, come a day after the president-elect complained about the canal on his Truth Social platform.
“Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” he said.
Trump also complained of China’s growing influence around the canal, a worrying trend for American interests as US businesses depend on the channel to move goods between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!“
The Panama Canal, which was completed by the United States in 1914, was returned to the Central American country under a 1977 deal signed by Democratic president Jimmy Carter.
Panama took full control in 1999.
Trump said that if Panama could not ensure “the secure, efficient and reliable operation” of the channel, “then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question.”
Mulino rejected Trump’s claims in his video message, though he also said he hopes to have “a good and respectful relationship” with the incoming administration.
“The canal has no direct or indirect control from China, nor the European Union, nor the United States or any other power,” Mulino said. “As a Panamanian, I reject any manifestation that misrepresents this reality.”
Later on Sunday, Trump responded to Mulino’s dismissal, writing on Truth Social: “We’ll see about that!“
Musk, president? Trump says ‘not happening’
- Trump: “He wasn’t born in this country”
“He’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump told a Republican conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
“You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country,” Trump said of the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who was born in South Africa.
The US Constitution requires that a president be a natural-born US citizen.
Trump was responding to criticism, particularly from the Democratic camp, portraying the tech billionaire and world’s richest person as “President Musk” for the outsized role he is playing in the incoming administration.
As per ceding the presidency to Musk, Trump also assured the crowd: “No, no that’s not happening.”
The influence of Musk, who will serve as Trump’s “efficiency czar,” has become a focus point for Democratic attacks, with questions raised over how an unelected citizen can wield so much power.
And there is even growing anger among Republicans after Musk trashed a government funding proposal this week in a blizzard of posts — many of them wildly inaccurate — to his more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X.
Alongside Trump, Musk ultimately helped pressure Republicans to renege on a funding bill they had painstakingly agreed upon with Democrats, pushing the United States to the brink of budgetary paralysis that would have resulted in a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
Congress ultimately reached an agreement overnight Friday to Saturday, avoiding massive halts to government services.
