For Creation of New ‘Cardinals’, Francis Appears with Facial Bruise

Ceremony in Vatican City

For Creation of New ‘Cardinals’, Francis Appears with Facial Bruise

Wears a white skullcap without actually being the Pope: The Argentinian apostate Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J.
(image: FABIO FRUSTACI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Today is a big day at the Vatican: Not only were the Nativity Scene and Christmas tree unveiled, ‘Pope’ Francis also held the latest consistory for the creation of new ‘cardinals’. The full video of it is available here.

A total of 21 individuals were raised to this Novus Ordo dignity, including such scoundrels as the perversion promoter ‘Fr.’ Timothy Radcliffe, O.P.

The ceremony comes days after the Vatican released this useful ‘dashboard’ of the college of cardinals.

As of today, the total number of Novus Ordo cardinals is 253. However, only those who are under 80 years of age at the time of a vacancy are permitted to vote in conclave. (That rule was established by ‘Pope’ Paul VI, presumably to ensure that certain old fogies from the days of Pope Pius XII and before wouldn’t interfere with the Novus Ordo revolution that was in progress.)

The total number of the so-called ‘cardinal electors’ — is 140 now. Out of these, as many as 110 were chosen by Francis — that’s 78.6%. Clearly, the Bergoglians will dominate the next ‘papal’ election.

As can be seen in the photo at the top of this post, Francis currently has a big bruise on the right of his chin. Reporters today have had slightly different takes on what happened:

“He fell yesterday morning and has a bruise on his right cheek and chin”, wrote Catholic News Service Rome on Twitter this morning.

“To date, the Vatican has not offered comment on his apparent injuries”, Vatican correspondent and analyst Christopher White pointed out at 10:13 am ET. In an subsequently-published article, White wrote: “Someone close to the pope told the National Catholic Reporter the injuries occurred when the pontiff fell on Dec. 6. To date, the Vatican has not offered any comment on the cause of his injuries.”

Two hours after White’s tweet, EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo reported: “Breaking: The Papal spokesman says the Pope bruised his chin on his nightstand.”

The last time Francis was seen in public with a serious bruise was in 2017 in Colombia, an injury he suffered live on camera when the driver of the popemobile he was was riding had to brake suddenly:

• Bruised and Wounded: Francis Hits Head in Colombia

Here are some more images from today showing Bergoglio’s bruised face:

Among the new ‘cardinals’ made today is 99-year-old Fr. Angelo Acerbi, who was ordained a priest in 1948.

Then there’s the interesting case of ‘Bp.’ Paskalis Bruno Syukur, whom Francis had originally nominated but who declined being made a ‘cardinal’ and whose nomination was withdrawn.

Since his first consistory in 2014, Francis has shown that the criteria he uses to pick cardinals are mostly ideology-driven rather than being based on tradition, merit, competence, or similar sensible considerations.

In an article for the 2024 consistory, Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci has identified five criteria Francis has used to make new cardinals:

• closeness
• wanting to send a message
• loyalty
• wanting to shuffle the cards
• ideological unity

While choosing men from the remotest and/or least Catholic corners of the world — think Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Iran, Sweden — may satisfy the Bergoglian obsession with the peripheries, how prudent that is as a criterion for selecting cardinals is another question:

The internationalization of the College of Cardinals is a good thing but it comes with a potential cost. Most of the cardinals will not know each other. The pope has not brought them together in Rome with any frequency for the kinds of meetings that would allow them to become better acquainted. Previously, popes would have the cardinals stay in Rome for meetings for a couple of days. Francis did this for his first consistory in 2014 and for the August 2022 consistory, but not for any of the others.

(Michael Sean Winters, “The cost of creating cardinals from far-flung countries”, National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 6, 2024)

Not only do they not know each other, it is also not clear how much stock to put in people whose highest qualification for the office of cardinal is that they are from a particualrly obscure part of the world.

But then, this is Francis doing things his way, and the last thing on his mind is the good of souls.

Image source: Shutterstock (FABIO FRUSTACI/EPA-EFE)
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