_…cardinals to receive their red hats at a consistory in December_
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Pope Francis has made a significant move by appointing 21 new cardinals to the College of Cardinals, increasing its size and further solidifying his influence on the group that will elect his successor. This is the largest intake of electors during his 11-year tenure.
The new cardinals include a man who will be the oldest cardinal, Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat who was once held hostage for six weeks in Colombia by leftist guerrillas. The youngest is Bishop Mykola Bychok, the 44-year-old head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Melbourne, Australia, named in a nod to the war in Ukraine.
Usually, the College of Cardinals has a limit of 120 voting-age cardinals, but popes often exceed the cap temporarily as existing cardinals age out. As of September 28, there were 122 cardinal-electors; the new additions will bring the number to 142.
Among those named by Francis were the heads of several major dioceses and archdioceses in South America, including Vicente Bokalic Iglic of Argentina, Jaime Spengler of Brazil, Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Chile, Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera of Ecuador, and Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio of Peru.
In contrast, only one new cardinal from North America was named: Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto. Other notable appointments include Dominique Joseph Mathieu, the Archbishop of Tehran, Iran; and Paskalis Bruno Syukur, the Bishop of Bogor, Indonesia, both belonging to the Franciscan religious order.
Asia will have two more cardinals in Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, the Archbishop of Tokyo, and Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, the Bishop of Caloocan in the Philippines. Africa will have two new cardinals: Ignace Bessi Dogbo, the Archbishop of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, and Jean-Paul Vesco, the Archbishop of Algiers.
According to Prof. Christopher Bellitto, a church historian, “Francis has again continued to extend the reach of the College of Cardinals, making sure that Catholic leaders from the church’s edges have a voice at the big table.”
Even before the announcement, Francis had named the vast majority of the voting-age cardinals who will one day vote in a conclave. Vatican statistics show that 92 of the cardinals under 80 had previously been named by Francis, compared with 24 named by Pope Benedict XVI and six by Saint John Paul II.
The appointment of Bychok gives Ukraine its only cardinal, sending a subtle political message as Russia’s war grinds on. Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, praised the nomination.
The new cardinals will receive their red hats at a consistory in December.
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