Pope Francis has said that an “epidemic of animosity” against people of other races or religions was hurting the weakest in society, striking a note of caution against the rise of populist nationalism.
Little more than a week after Donald Trump was elected the next US president, buoying anti-immigrant parties in Europe and elsewhere, the Pope noted “how quickly those among us with the status of a stranger, an immigrant or a refugee become a threat, take on the status of an enemy”.
“An enemy because they come from a distant country or have different customs. An enemy because of the colour of their skin, their language or their social class. An enemy because they think differently or even have a different faith,” he said at a ceremony to induct cardinals.
While not naming any country, Francis appeared to refer to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim attitudes that surfaced during the US campaign and since the election.
The US Justice Department said on Friday that it was investigating reports of intimidation and harassment in schools, churches and elsewhere since the election.
One of the new cardinals, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago, told Reuters that the Pope was “very much aware of the fact that if that (animosity) is not checked, it is very contagious and it can spread quickly, it can be like a wildfire”. In his homily, the Pope said the church itself was not immune to “a virus of polarisation and animosity”, an apparent reference to a public challenge by four conservative cardinals, who accused him of sowing confusion on moral issues.
In the “consistory” ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica, Francis appointed 17 new cardinals, 13 of them under 80 and thus still eligible to succeed him.
Dressed in red robes, the “princes of the church” knelt before the Pontiff to pledge their allegiance in a solemn ceremony.
“How many situations of uncertainty and suffering are sown by this growing animosity between peoples, between us! Yes, between us, within our communities, our priests, our meetings,” he said.
“We come from distant lands; we have different traditions, skin colour, languages and social backgrounds; we think differently and we celebrate our faith in a variety of rites.
None of this makes us enemies; instead, it is one of our greatest riches,” he said.
The Pope gave each man a three-cornered red hat, telling them that the colour symbolises “your readiness to act with courage, even to the shedding of your blood” for the Catholic Church.
They were also handed a gold ring of their high office.
Afterwards, the Pope and the new cardinals boarded two buses and visited former pope Benedict XVI, who has been living in a house in the Vatican gardens since resigning in 2013.
Naming new cardinals allows a pontiff to put his stamp on the future of the 1.2bn-member church.
The appointees come from 15 countries and many are progressives like the Pope.
Three come from the United States.
The unexpected pick of three Americans reverses a trend that saw Francis pass over US candidates in his first two consistories.
By choosing archbishops Blase Cupich of Chicago, Joseph Tobin of Indianapolis and Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, Francis has “engineered what may prove to be a seismic shift in the Catholic hierarchy in the United States”, wrote expert John Allen on the US Catholic website Crux.
The three, from the church’s “progressive wing”, may help counterbalance a strong conservative presence among US cardinals, particularly at a moment when the authority of reform-minded Francis is being challenged by US-led traditionalists.
The newly-inducted cardinal-electors under 80, who are eligible to take part in a papal conclave, come from Italy, the Central African Republic, Spain, the United States, Brazil, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Belgium, Mauritius, Mexico, and Papua New Guinea. Those who were aged over 80 come from Italy, Malaysia, Lesotho, and Albania.
Francis has now named 44 cardinal-electors, slightly more than a third of the total of 120 allowed by church law.
It was Francis’ third “consistory” since his election in 2013 as the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years, and he has used each occasion to show support for the church in far-flung places or where Catholics are suffering.