VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has named the Archbishop of Quebec, Gerald Cyprien Lacroix, 56, among his first batch of cardinals.
Gerald Cyprien Lacroix, originally from Saint-Hilaire-de-Dorset in the Beauce, became a priest in 1988 and took over from Marc Ouellet as Archbishop of Quebec on February 22, 2011.
Other than Ouellet, who now works at the Vatican, Canada now counts three cardinals, the others being Jean-Claude Turcotte and Thomas Collins of Toronto.
He will be invested on February 22 at the Vatican.
Lacroix referred to himself and Pope Francis as kindred spirits, agreeing to focus on helping the less fortunate and have a greater acceptance of diversity.
“He wants everybody to feel included, no exclusions, that's very clear. That's why people like you're saying, people of gay rights, people of many different schools of thought feel, wow, the door's open,” he said Monday. “Both of us, and I'm very proud to say both of us, are in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe that what the church needs the most is not change its structures but to change us.”
As to the Parti Quebecois’s charter of values, he said there is little room for compromise.
“We're not on the right course with this charter. Look at the fruits up to now. We're dividing people. Every day, people are more afraid of each other,” he said.
On Sunday the Pope chose 19 men from Canada, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere to reflect his attention to the poor.
Francis made the announcement as he spoke from his studio window to a crowd in St. Peter's Square.
Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they are eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal's most important task.
Some appointments were expected, including that of his new secretary of state, the Italian archbishop Pietro Parolin, and the German head of the Vatican's watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller.
But some names were surprising.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope's selection of churchmen from Haiti and Burkino Faso, which are among the world's poorest nations, reflects Francis' attention to the destitute as a core part of the church's mission.
Also chosen to become a "prince of the church," as the cardinals are known, was Mario Aurelio Poli, the archbishop of Buenos Aires, a post Francis left when he was elected as the first Latin American pope in March.
His selections also came from Managua, Nicaragua; Santiago, Chile; and Rio de Janeiro. The appointees included churchmen from Seoul, South Korea, and the archbishop of Westminster, in Britain, Vincent Nichols.
In a sentimental touch, the three men too old to vote for the next pope include 98-year-old Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla, who had served as personal secretary to Pope John XXIII. The late pontiff will be made a saint along with John Paul II at the Vatican in April.
-With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
