Pope Francis recently appointed several cardinals from countries not typically represented in church leadership in another untraditional move that has been well-received by Catholics around the world, including at UCLA.
The churchmen Francis elevated to the cardinalship include the first cardinal from Haiti and representatives from countries such as Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast in an effort to increase representation of a larger variety of nations. The cardinals Francis appointed hail from more than a dozen countries on five continents.
The College of Cardinals elects the pope when the office is vacated. They may also have duties as members of the Roman Curia, or the governing and administrative body of the Roman Catholic Church.
The current pontiff, a champion of the poor and destitute, has rearranged the Vatican’s priorities in his 10 months as head of the church. He put aid for the needy as one of his top priorities and placed controversial issues like abortion and gay marriage lower on the agenda.
“(Pope Francis) is making people feel like they are proud to be Catholic again,” said Catherine Collins, a second-year undeclared student who is also a student leader at the University Catholic Center on its outreach team.
Collins said she is happy that Francis is generating good press. For a long time, child molestation scandals created a negative image of the Catholic Church for much of the public, she said.
In the United States, chapters of the Catholic Church have been paying damages to alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests for more than two decades.
Collins said she thinks Pope Francis is highlighting more positive aspects of the church.
Father Paul Rospond, a campus minister at the University Catholic Center, said the pope is making an effort to focus the church’s attentions toward addressing poverty. He said he thinks the pope’s choice of cardinals reflects his reputation as a man for the poor. Rospond also said he thinks that by giving other nations a bigger voice, the diversification of the College of Cardinals could influence the selection of the next pope.
Rospond added that he thought Francis’ emphasis on healing and aid as pope deviates from his predecessors because of the past popes’ respective backgrounds in controversial issues.
Pope Emeritus John Paul II, pope from 1978 to 2005, was from Poland and “had to hold a hard line from a church in a communist country,” Rospond said. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s previous position as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed Catholic doctrine on social problems and other issues, contributing to his conservative approach to the papacy, Rospond added.
Rospond said that the current pope’s ideas are encouraging to the University Catholic Center because of his focus on forgiveness and love.
“The church is … a church for poor people, and that’s what it’s always been and that’s what it needs to return to,” said Alex Mercier, a third-year political science student who identifies as Catholic.
Mercier said he appreciates Pope Francis’ efforts to shift the focus of the Catholic Church away from polarizing issues, like abortion, and toward charity work. He said he hopes the appointment of the first cardinal from Haiti will give a voice to an area that has never had one in the College of Cardinals.
Other UCLA students who do not identify as Catholic said they appreciate Pope Francis’ tone and sentiments.
Nicole Williams, a second-year communication studies student, said she was raised by lesbian mothers and has many gay friends and thinks that the church can be exclusionary. She said she has seen her friends turned away from some church doors because of their sexual orientation.
Williams added that she hopes Francis can steer churches away from practices she saw as judgmental toward people who do not agree with certain church doctrines.
Francis will hold a public consistory, or gathering of cardinals, on Feb. 22 to formalize 16 of the new cardinals.