Pope Francis has looked beyond the usual Vatican circles for new cardinals and overhauled the governance of the Vatican bank at the start of a year that heralds key reforms for the Roman Catholic Church.
Even some measures that appear limited in scope, like the curtailment of the honorific "monsignor" title and a cut in costs for sainthood applications, are being seen as signals of a will to overhaul the Vatican.
The new cardinals, who will be formally appointed next month, include several from relatively minor dioceses in developing countries and with a reputation as pastoral figures -- far from Vatican power games.
The nominations have knocked a few noses out of joint in the Vatican, where becoming a cardinal has previously been seen as an appointment traditionally associated with particular high-placed posts.
"Without starting any revolutions, this choice clearly shows an interesting reasoning," said Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican expert who knows the pope personally and interviewed him for the La Stampa daily last year.
"In all his public comments, in all his reign so far this pope has shown he wants a Church in which the clergy is not seen as a cast apart," Tornielli said.
Tornielli said the pope has shown particular attention to reforming the clergy, frequently upbraiding priests for not being close enough to their communities and condemning the "shame" of child sex crimes by clerics.
In one oft-repeated comment, he said priests should be shepherds "with the smell of their sheep on them".
He has also criticised "smarmy priests who worship Narcissus" and "butterfly priests who live in vanity".
Joseph Xavier, an Indian priest from the pope's own Jesuit order and a lecturer in theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, said Francis has shown he "prefers a Church in motion like the people of God".
The Argentine pope has led by personal example in emphasising that priests should reach out to the needy, washing the feet of prisoners as part of an Easter ritual and baptising the child of a single mother.
