It’s common for popes to search far and wide for their cardinals, but none has searched farther and wider than Pope Francis.

OXFORD, England – Cardinal-elect Jean Zerbo of Bamako, Mali, the first from the western Africa nation, will use his position to ease the multiple crises facing sub-Saharan regions, an aide said, despite new media accusations linking him to a financial scandal.

VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church's 17 new cardinals must dedicate their lives to being ministers of forgiveness and reconciliation in a world – and sometimes a church – often marked by hostility and division, Pope Francis said.

ROME - Venezuelan Archbishop Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo is one of the Pope's picks from the peripheries who will get a red hat this weekend, which the new cardinal-elect says is a sign of the Vatican's concern for the people amid the country’s ongoing crisis.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is often referred to as the “Pope of surprises” for many reasons. One of them is the unexpected churchmen he chooses to elevate to the rank of cardinal, as he will do with 16 bishops and an elderly priest on Saturday (Nov. 19) in St. Peter’s Basilica.

MANILA, Philippines – Close friends and associates of Cardinal-designate Anthony Soter Fernandez, retired archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, have been waiting for years for the 84-year-old prelate to receive a red hat.

OXFORD, England – Papua New Guinea's first cardinal believes his appointment highlights the pope's wish for Catholics to be treated equally from all parts of the world.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Cardinal-designate Baltazar Porras Cardozo of Merida, Venezuela, is known throughout his country, and his appointment as a cardinal gave the people something to celebrate, said a woman who has worked with him for 20 years.

VATICAN CITY – Being named a cardinal along with the nuncio who refuses to leave war-torn Syria, an Albanian priest sentenced to death and tortured by an atheist regime and a young African archbishop who put his life on the line to sow peace and reconciliation in Central African Republic has made Cardinal-designate Renato Corti pray and think hard.

VATICAN CITY – In choosing 17 new members of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis has once again looked to countries and dioceses that had never been represented in the body that advises the Pope and will elect his successor.

VATICAN CITY – The former secretary to a saint and the oldest member of the College of Cardinals died May 26 at the age of 100.

CHICAGO - Cardinal Francis E. George, the retired archbishop of Chicago who was the first native Chicagoan to head the archdiocese, died April 17 at his residence after nearly 10 years battling cancer. He was 78.

VATICAN CITY - In a Valentine's Day ceremony to create 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis offered a meditation on Christian love and, especially, what it means for those who guide and minister in the church.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis called for a Vatican that operates with “absolute transparency” as he gathered more than 165 cardinals in Rome for high-level meetings aimed at tackling one of the toughest challenges of his reformist papacy: overhauling the dysfunctional bureaucracy of the Roman Curia.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis began what could be a key week for his reformist papacy Feb. 9, starting with meetings with his hand-picked kitchen cabinet of nine senior cardinals who are developing plans to overhaul the Roman Curia, the papal civil service that has been plagued with crisis and dysfunction.