John L. Allen Jr.
New cardinals visit with Pope Francis and
retired Pope Benedict XVI at the Mater
Ecclesiae monastery after a consistory for
the creation of 20 new cardinals in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican August 27. Photo: CNS Pope Francis August 27 created 20 new cardinals, including 16 under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope. It was Francis’s eighth consistory, and whenever we get a new crop of Princes of the Church, several chronic misconceptions tend to head once more unto the breach. Herewith, three conceptual…
