Cardinals

Pope Francis announced he will create 21 new cardinals Aug. 27, including 68-year-old Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego, California.

In his homily, Pope Francis said the two key phrases for the Advent season were God’s closeness and people’s vigilance against indifference and mediocrity.

One by one 11 senior churchmen, including two U.S. citizens — Cardinals Wilton D. Gregory of Washington and Silvano M. Tomasi, a former Vatican diplomat — knelt before Pope Francis to receive their red hats, a cardinal’s ring and a scroll formally declaring their new status and assigning them a “titular” church in Rome.

After the consistory to create new cardinals in early October, Pope Francis will have chosen more than half of the men who will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect his successor.

Pope Francis announced he will create 13 new cardinals Oct. 5, choosing prelates from 13 different nations as a sign of “the missionary vocation of the church that continues to proclaim the merciful love of God to all men and women of the earth.”

Although it is not unusual for a pope to set aside temporarily the limit of 120 cardinals under the age of 80, Pope Francis has done so in a way that could last for more than a year.

Following Christ the King, whose regal power is love and mercy, means the whole church and each Christian must “follow his way of tangible love,” Pope Francis said.

The Catholic Church’s 17 new cardinals must dedicate their lives to being ministers of forgiveness and reconciliation in a world — and sometimes a church — often marked by hostility and division, Pope Francis said.