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Pope Francis elevates 21 men, including his deputy in charge of the diocese of Rome and the archbishops of Turin, Belgrade, Lima, Tokyo, Abidjan, and Tehran, to the cardinalate in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday.
Except for the retired Vatican diplomat Angelo Acerbi (99), all new cardinals are under 80 and would be potential papal electors. After the consistory, the College of Cardinals will have 253 members. Of these, 140 are under 80 and could participate in a conclave. The Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias is already celebrating his 80th birthday on 24 December. By the end of 2025, fourteen other cardinals will leave the circle of papal electors, including Cardinal Christoph Schönborn from Vienna.
This is the tenth consistory for the creation of new cardinals since the papal election of Francis in 2013. At the solemn ceremony, the Pope presents each of his new senators with their certificate of appointment, puts the purple biretta on their head, places the cardinal’s ring on their finger, and assigns them a titular church in Rome. This is seen as an expression of the papal electors’ attachment to the pontiff’s episcopal city. On Sunday, the Feast of the Assumption, Francis will celebrate a joint mass with the new cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Some surprises
As usual with Francis, the list of 21 names contains a few surprises. For example, he appointed the Indian prelate George Jacob Koovakad (51), who has been the Pope’s travel marshal for several years, as well as the Lithuanian cleric Rolandas Makrickas (52), who leads the Pope’s favorite church in Rome, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, as cardinals. For many, the title of cardinal also comes unexpectedly for the Italian migration expert Fabio Baggio (59), who is undersecretary in the Vatican’s social and development agency.
One of the youngest cardinals ever appointed is 44-year-old Mykola Bychok, the bishop responsible for Ukrainian exiles living in and around Melbourne (Australia). He could one day take on an important role in the Ukrainian motherland and thus become an important ally for the Pope. One of the youngest members of the College of Cardinals will be the 53-year-old Archbishop of Toronto in Canada, Francis Leo (53).
Many from Latin America, Africa, and Asia
Most of the new appointments for Latin America, Africa, and Asia are less surprising. It is now almost expected that important capital city bishoprics will be headed by cardinals, such as Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio (74, Lima, Peru), Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib (67, Santiago de Chile), World Caritas President Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi (66, Tokyo, Japan), and Ignace Bessi Dogbo (63, Abidjan, Ivory Coast).
Neo-Cardinal Jaime Spengler (64), Archbishop of Porto Alegre in Brazil, is, in turn, an official heavyweight of the Church in South America as President of the Latin American Bishops’ Council CELAM. In the Pope’s Argentinian homeland, Archbishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic (72), primate of Argentina since the upgrading of the old diocese of Santiago del Estero a few months ago, will receive the cardinal’s biretta. Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera (69), Archbishop of Guayaquil in Ecuador and Chairman of the local Bishops’ Conference, will also become a cardinal.
The Belgian Franciscan Dominique Mathieu (61), who heads the Iranian archdiocese of Tehran, and the Dominican Archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco (62), will also be appointed. The Philippines, the country in Asia with the largest Catholic majority, will also have another cardinal in the shape of Pablo Virgilio David (65), Chairman of the Bishops’ Conference.
Former chaplain in Austria
The Pope is less predictable in Europe. Here he promotes the Belgrade Archbishop Ladislav Nemet (68) to cardinal. The Steyl missionary lived in Austria for several years around the turn of the millennium and was also a chaplain in a parish in Mödling near Vienna. The internationally well-connected religious figure has also been Vice President of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) since 2021. He strives to build bridges between East and West and is a key supporter of the Church’s synodal process.
Another “cardinal vicar” for Rome
There are “logical” cardinal appointments for Italy: the industrial metropolis of Turin now has a cardinal again with Archbishop Roberto Repole (57), as does Naples with Domenico Battaglia (61). And in his own diocese of Rome, the Pope has also restored traditional relations. His de facto deputy for the management of the diocese, Vicar General Archbishop Baldassare Reina (54), will soon also have a cardinal’s biretta and, like many of his predecessors, will then be able to manage everything in Rome’s diocese as “cardinal vicar”—albeit under the supervision of the Pope as the actual bishop.
One of the internationally best-known faces in the future ranks of cardinals also played an eminently important role at the World Synod Assembly in Rome on synodal church reform: the English theologian and religious Timothy Radcliffe (79). As a spiritual advisor to the Synod, the former Master General of the Dominicans was one of the most important sources of inspiration.
- ORF.a/picture: Image by Reynaldo Amadeu Dal Lin Junior Juba from Pixabay
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