On 9th October, Pope Francis announced the creation of 17 new Catholic Cardinals, including Malaysia’s first-ever Cardinal: Archbishop Emeritus Anthony Soter Fernandez. Archbishop Fernandez was ordained as a priest in Penang in 1966 and was appointed as Bishop of Penang 11 years later in 1977. In 1983, he was then appointed Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, which includes the role of overseeing all the Bishops in Malaysia. He resigned as Archbishop in 2003 at the age of 71.

Now, at 84 years old, Archbishop Fernandez has been elevated to Cardinal of Malaysia. His duties will include acting as a consultant to the Pope along with the other Cardinals, to administer the Church of Rome when there isn’t a Pope, and offer his services in various Departments of the Holy See if needed.

Archbishop Fernandez becomes just the joint-fourth Cardinal in a predominantly Muslim country – the first Bangladeshi Cardinal has also been created this week. The other three predominantly-Muslim countries already with Cardinals are Egypt, Indonesia and, Sudan.

So far, Pope Francis has announced a total of three consistories (a formal meeting of the College of Cardinals where the Pope has the opportunity to appoint new Cardinals),  all following a similar pattern of elevating Cardinals from minority-Catholic countries and countries without Cardinals, giving them a bigger voice in selecting the next Pope.

What exactly does a Cardinal do?

A Cardinal is the most senior clergyman in the Church below the Pope, sometimes known as the ‘prince of the church’. In the event that a Pope steps downs or passes away, the College of Cardinals will come together for a conclave – the formal meeting of Cardinals to elect a new Pope from their ranks – and only Cardinals below the age of 80 will be eligible to vote for the next pope.

This means Malaysia’s first Cardinal is ineligible to vote. But it’s still a pretty good first step to better representation in Rome for Catholics in Malaysia.

Currently, there are a total of 211 Cardinals in the Catholic Church with 111 of them being eligible to cast their vote, should a conclave be held today. Of the new appointees, 13 are below the age of 80, which brings the total number of eligible Cardinals to 124.

Four of the 17 new Cardinals that were named this week are over 80 years old and unable to vote. They are from Malaysia, Albania, Italy, and Lesotho. The other 13 Cardinals from Africa, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Belgium, Mauritius, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Italy, and America will be eligible to vote in a conclave, should one be held today.

Interestingly, Archbishop Fernandez and Archbishop Patrick D’Rozario of Bangladesh will bring Asia’s Cardinal count up to 24. With a bit of math magic, we thought we’d look at the ratio of Cardinals to Catholics in different regions once these 17 new cardinals are appointed during the consistory on 19th November 2016:

Ratio of Cardinals to Catholics

Pope Francis, ‘the pauper Pope’

Pope Francis is quite an unusual Pope, one that has been a lot more liberal and vocal than his predecessors. Pope Francis champions the poor, preaches love and charity, and reaches out to minorities in the Church – his most notable moments include offering a sandwich to the Swiss Guard outside his room and sneaking out to feed the homeless in Rome.

He has set up a committee to pursue child abuse cases, urged the church to focus efforts on the poor and marginalised, and sold his Harley motoribike to set up a soup kitchen in Rome. His choices for Cardinals only serve to reiterate his focus on minorities and reaching out to Catholics all over the world.

Fun fact: Pope Francis is the first Latin American Pope in history – he’s from Argentina. He’s also the first Pope born outside Europe in over 1,000 years. In Catholicism, that’s as significant as President Obama being the first African American president in the US.