New cardinals named in countries with tiny Catholic minorities

In a surprise announcement yesterday, Pope Francis named new cardinals for three countries where Catholics are a tiny minority: Sweden, Mali and Laos.

He also named cardinals for Spain and El Salvador.

The pontiff told the crowd in St Peter’s Square: “Their origin, from different parts of the world, manifests the universality of the Church spread out all over the Earth.”

He will elevate the churchmen to cardinals in a ceremony at the Vatican on 28 June.

Since becoming Pope, Francis has made a point of visiting his flock in places where Catholics are in the minority, as well as of working to improve relations between churches and among believers of different faiths. Monsignor

Anders Arborelius, bishop of Stockholm, is one of the newlyappointed cardinals.

The Pope’s brief pilgrimage last year to Sweden, where Lutherans are the Christian majority, was hailed by some as instrumental in helping to improve relations between the two churches.

While there, he joined Lutheran leaders in a common commemoration of the Protestant Reformation that divided Europe five centuries ago.

In Mali, where Monsignor Jean Zerbo, archbishop of Bamako, is to be a cardinal, Muslims are the predominant religious majority.

Monsignor Zerbo’s clerical resume reveals him to be a churchman working for reconciliation in society, a virtue repeatedly stressed by Francis.

The Vatican noted that Monsignor Zerbo, 73 has played a role in peace negotiations with Islamist extremists.

Terrorists attacked a hotel in Bamako in 2015, killing 19 people. Last month, the UN peacekeeping chief for Mali called the security situation there alarming, warning that extremist groups operating under the al-qaeda banner were carrying out more sophisticated attacks and Islamic State were slowly making inroads.

There has been slow progress in implementing a peace deal reached in June 2015 between Mali’s government, Tuareg separatists and armed groups in the north.

In the tiny Catholic community of Laos, Monsignor Louis-marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Pakse, is to be a cardinal. He was ordained a priest in 1972 and has served as a bishop since 2001.

The Vatican paid tribute to his work in visiting faithful in mountain villages. Since early this year, he has served as apostolic administrator in Vientiane.