Pope Francis will appoint 17 new cardinals in November, including three from the U.S. and a number from the developing world, a move that reflects his goal of rebalancing the college of cardinals toward regions where Catholicism is growing fastest, as well as his preference for liberals over conservatives.
The new U.S. cardinals, who are the first from the country to be named by Pope Francis, include the archbishops of Chicago and Indianapolis and a former bishop of Dallas. The pope will also elevate to cardinal the Vaticanâ??s envoy to what he called â??beloved and martyred Syria.â?
With this batch of cardinals, Pope Francis will have nominated more than a third of the men whose most important task is the election of a new pope.
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