Lex Anteinternet: The Shoes of the Fishermen, Tax Collectors, Tent M...Twenty-One New Cardinals.

Lex Anteinternet: The Shoes of the Fishermen, Tax Collectors, Tent M...: The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew. In spite of commenting on nearly every social trend imaginable, one thing that I've genera...

Just published on Sunday.

As an example of how hard it is to really get objective news analysis, or at least neutral news analysis, in the Internet Age, just after we put that post up, the news broke that Pope Francis appointed 21 new Cardinals, although only 18 of them are young enough (a relative term) to fall below the voting age in selecting the next Pope.  

Here is the list, with those from outside of Europe and the America's in red, and those from outside of Europe otherwise in blue..

• Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (United Kingdom)
• Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Prefect for the Congregation for Clergy (South Korea)
• Fernando Vergez Alzaga, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State (Spain)
• Archbishop Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille (France)
• Archbishop Peter Okpaleke of Ekwulobia (Nigeria)
• Archbishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner of Manaus (Brazil)
• Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião of Rosário Ferrão, of Goa e Damão (India)
• Bishop Robert Walter McElroy of San Diego (United States)
• Archbishop Virgilio Do Carmo Da Silva of Dili (East Timor)
• Bishop Oscar Cantoni of Como (Italy)
• Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad (India)
• Archbishop Paulo Cezar Costa of Brasília (Brazil)
• Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr M. Afr, of Wa (Ghana)
• Archbishop William Goh Seng Chye of Singapore (Singapore)
• Archbishop Adalberto Martínez Flores of Asunción (Paraguay)
• Archbishop Giorgio Marengo Prefect of Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia, but born and raised in Italy)

Plus, the following five who are over 80, therefore ineligible to vote in a conclave:

• Archbishop Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, Archbishop Emeritus of Cartagena (Colombia)
• Archbishop Lucas Van Looy SDB, Archbishop Emeritus of Ghent (Belgium)
• Archbishop Arrigo Miglio Archbishop Emeritus of Cagliari (Italy)
• Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, SJ (Italy)
• Monsignor Fortunato Frezza (Italy)

The big news is that they're from all over the globe, which is one of the things I urged in the post above.  Lots of them are from outside the traditionally Catholic regions of the globe.  

Nonetheless, at least on Twitter, there were instant condemnations from people claiming that all of them are in dangerous left wing clerics, or worse.

Well, baloney.  Most of us know nothing about these individuals whatsoever.  Looking up their biographies would give almost no Catholic a reason to be in distress.  Giorgio Marengo is 48 years of age, thereby meeting another one of my criteria, and has worked during his entire Priesthood in Mongolia, which can't be easy but exactly fits my Apostolic analogy.  Anthony Poola of India was born into the Untouchables class.  Lazzaro You Heung-sik of South Korea is a Catholic convert.  Looking at their bios, there's probably only two that may cause conservative Catholic concern, and they're not from the regions noted.

But I'm sure people are going to freak out anyway.