When Pope Francis announced the names of his new cardinals on Sunday, critics were quick to accuse of him of “stacking the deck”. The choices, they claimed, were aimed at influencing the outcome of the next conclave.
But there are two problems with this thesis. First, if Francis wanted to pack the papal electorate with supporters, why did he only pick five new candidates? There had been rumours that he would name 30 or so, temporarily inflating the number of cardinals able to vote in a conclave to 150 (far above the limit of 120 set by Paul VI in 1975). But after the consistory on June 28 (his fourth), Pope Francis will have named only 40 per cent of the cardinal-electors.
