The Geopolitical Dynamics of Cardinal Appointments

This month Pope Francis announced that he’s creating 21 cardinals, and once again his list includes unexpected names that will baffle commentators who assume that he’s determined to stack the next conclave with liberals. 

For example, Australia now finally has a cardinal – but he’s a 44-year-old bishop from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic diaspora rather than the actual head of the Ukrainian Church in Kiev. There’s also a new English cardinal who isn’t even a bishop, the Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe. He’s nearly 80, so will soon have to step down as an elector – but, believe it or not, one of the new cardinals is 99 and therefore old enough to be his father.

In this episode of Holy Smoke, Vatican analyst Serre Verweij joins Damian Thompson to discuss the significance of this consistory. He suggests that this Pope, famously hostile to traditionalists, is nonetheless moving to the right at this late stage in his pontificate. But why?