VATICAN CITY (RNS) \u2014 At a solemn ceremony in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica to elevate 17 new cardinals, Pope Francis on Saturday delivered a ringing plea to the world and his own Catholic Church to reject \u201cthe virus of polarization and animosity\u201d and the growing temptation to \u201cdemonize\u201d those who are different.<\/span><\/p>\n The pontiff\u2019s sermon came across as a powerful, gospel-based indictment of the populist and nationalist anger roiling countries around the world, displayed most recently in the wake of the stunning election of Donald Trump as president of the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn God\u2019s heart there are no enemies,\u201d Francis told a grand assemblage of hundreds of clerics in elegant scarlet and purple vestments along with thousands of political and civic leaders and supporters of the new cardinals, who include three Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGod has only sons and daughters,\u201d the pope said. \u201cWe are the ones who raise walls, build barriers and label people. God has sons and daughters precisely so that no one will be turned away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Francis said \u201cour instinctive reaction\u201d is to \u201cdiscredit or curse\u201d those whom we view as opponents, \u201cto \u2018demonize\u2019 them so as to have a \u2018sacred\u2019 justification\u201d for dismissing them.<\/span><\/p>\n God\u2019s unconditional love, he said, \u201cis the true prerequisite for the conversion of our pitiful hearts that tend to judge, divide, oppose and condemn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Trump \u2014 with his call for a registry for Muslims, a wall separating the U.S. from Mexico and promise to throw the undocumented out of the country \u2014 galvanized resentments against immigrants, religious minorities and others during the presidential campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n His victory, this summer\u2019s Brexit vote and the growing popularity of nationalist movements across Europe have raised grave concerns around the world, including at the Vatican.<\/span><\/p>\n Francis made it clear that for him, such divisive sentiments are anathema.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe live at a time in which polarization and exclusion are burgeoning and considered the only way to resolve conflicts,\u201d said the pope, who turns 80 next month. \u201cWe see, for example, how quickly those among us with the status of a stranger, an immigrant or a refugee become a threat, take on the status of an enemy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAn enemy because they come from a distant country or have different customs. An enemy because of the color of their skin, their language or their social class. An enemy because they think differently or even have a different faith.\u201d This animosity gradually turns to outright hostility and violence, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet Francis did not spare his own church from his warning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes, between us, within our communities, our priests, our meetings,\u201d he told the hundreds of clerics. \u201cThe virus of polarization and animosity permeates our way of thinking, feeling and acting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Those words carried a special resonance given the controversy that erupted in recent days as four conservative cardinals publicly challenged Francis over his efforts to make the church more open and pastoral in its ministry, saying that they may try to charge him with teaching heresy if he does not clarify some of his statements.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cGang of Four,\u201d as some here have dubbed them, is led by U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based churchman who has been one of Francis\u2019 staunchest foes since he was elected pope in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview published Friday, Francis appeared to respond to his foes \u2014 without naming them \u2014 saying some critics \u201care acting in bad faith to foment divisions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In his address in St. Peter\u2019s on Saturday, Francis said such divisions were \u201ccontrary to the richness and universality\u201d of the Catholic Church, which was on display in the range of new cardinals from countries around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe come from distant lands; we have different traditions, skin color, languages and social backgrounds,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think differently and we celebrate our faith in a variety of rites. None of this makes us enemies; instead, it is one of our greatest riches.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The churchmen elevated to the rank of cardinal Saturday include prelates from 11 dioceses and six countries that have never before had a cardinal, and from places far outside the traditional European orbit of ecclesiastical influence: Albania, for example, plus the Central African Republic, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.<\/span><\/p>\n Three of the new cardinals are older than 80 and thus not eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis\u2019 successor.<\/span><\/p>\n One of those new cardinals, Sebastian Koto Khoarai of Lesotho in Africa, is 87 and could not make the trip due to poor health. He is still considered an official cardinal.<\/span><\/p>\n Francis included three Americans in this new batch of cardinals, the first he has appointed from the U.S. in three rounds of nominations he has made so far.<\/span><\/p>\n They are Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Indianapolis and soon to head the Newark archdiocese in New Jersey; and Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish-born churchman whom Francis recently transferred from the Dallas diocese to a major post in the Roman Curia.<\/span><\/p>\n Of the 228 current members of the College of Cardinals, 121 are under age 80 and thus could vote in a conclave. Vatican guidelines set the number of cardinal-electors at 120, though a pope can exceed that limit.<\/span><\/p>\n Francis has appointed 44 of the current cardinal-electors, about one-third. Another 56 were appointed by his immediate predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and 21 were named by St. John Paul II.<\/span><\/p>\n Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to resign, is 89 and infirm and lives in a monastery inside the Vatican walls.<\/span><\/p>\n This is the first consistory, as the service creating new cardinals is known, that Benedict has not been able to attend.<\/span><\/p>\n But the new cardinals piled into two mini-buses immediately after the ceremony in the basilica and drove through the Vatican gardens to pay Benedict a courtesy visit.<\/span><\/p>\n Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/world\/2016\/11\/19\/pope-francis-denounces-growing-demonization-enemies-outsiders\/94123474\/<\/span><\/p>\n