Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, the director of the Holy See Press Office from 2006 to 2016, said that the “August consistory will result in a college of cardinals that increasingly reflects the universal presence of the Catholic Church and also the marked evolution of its distribution in the different continents and countries.”

“A missionary Church attentive to the different ‘peripheries’: geographical, cultural, social,” he added. “A Church that also experiences situations of tension, both internally and in relation to the societies in which it operates.”