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Pope's Cardinal Appointments Reflect Changing Church and Local Faithful

Pope Francis greets newly appointed cardinals.
AP
Pope Francis greets newly appointed cardinals.

Pope Francis has nominated twenty new cardinals as part of moves to diversify the voices within the Vatican.

Many of the new cardinals are from the global south, and some of the appointees represent countries that have never had a voice in the Vatican before.

Father George Heyman is the President of Saint Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Pittsford. He says Pope Francis appears to be trying to reflect the growing diversity of the Catholic Church.

"We have people who speak various languages and come from various cultures and even our own parishes in the Rochester area are much more diverse than they were when I was a child and when I was growing up in Rochester. So we see the Catholic population, even locally here, much more diverse than what it was a generation ago."

Heyman says one of the biggest changes he's seen has been an increase in the Hispanic population.

"I , myself, have celebrated mass in Spanish and learned to do that because in our Rochester area we have a great deal of migrant population."

The new cardinals will be formally installed on February 14th.

Veronica Volk is a senior editor and producer for WXXI News.