Rome Newsroom, Apr 18, 2023 / 14:30 pm
By deciding to leave the hospital as soon as possible last month and immediately showing himself standing and not in a wheelchair, Pope Francis wanted to send out two signals. The first is that, despite the infirmities of his age, he still manages and intends to govern, and therefore one should not even think of a shadow papacy. The second is that no one can decide how the liturgies will be managed.
Indeed, during Pope Francis’ hospitalization, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, had made it known that the cardinals had already defined who would celebrate the Masses of the Easter holidays and that the pope would eventually “attend” these celebrations. Instead, Pope Francis presided over the festivities himself while maintaining the custom of letting another celebrant at the altar perform the rites that his mobility no longer allows him to perform.
These two actions underscore that Pope Francis will continue to decide on the life of the Church, carrying forward his reform project, which still seems unfinished, but also outlining the profile of the College of Cardinals, which will have to elect his successor.
After the August 2022 consistory, there were 132 cardinal electors, and 62% of them had been created by Pope Francis. Currently, there are 123 cardinal electors; of these, 81 were created by Pope Francis, which is 65%.