Vatican News coverage of announcement:
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-10/pope-francis-announces-consistory-for-creation-of-new-cardinals.html
Crux coverage of the announcement:
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2024/10/pope-gives-nods-to-peripheries-and-pals-in-naming-21-new-cardinals
Hey folks it’s Gregg, bringing some Cardinews you’ve probably been expecting if you’re interested enough in Catholic stuff to be listening to this. At his Sunday Angelus this week, Pope Francis announced that he would be creating a new batch of Cardinals on December 8th. I haven’t worked out exactly how I’ll be covering them schedule-wise, what with the added wild card of my new job (yay), but I do plan to introduce them all to you sooner rather than later and the fact that we just had a First Judgment capping off the most recent batch of existing Cardinals actually makes things pretty convenient, timing-wise.
Let’s take a moment to briefly outline the new Cardinals, and then I’ll leave you all in suspense for Sunday, or Saturday, or whenever it is I do Cardinal Numbers releases at this point. Probably Sundays now with my new work schedule.
Describing the new Cardinals as a whole, Pope Francis noted that “their origin reflects the universality of the Church, that continues to announce God’s merciful love to all people.”
First up, we have future Cardinal Angelo ACERBI, a 99 year old Italian and former Apostolic Nuncio. He’s almost certainly the oldest Cardinal at elevation in church history, beating Pope Francis’ strong initial bid of the 98 year old Cardinal Capovilla back in 2014. Veteran Vaticanologist John Allen, Jr. already beat me to telling the joke that came to my mind in guessing that Pope Francis would round up a 100 year old guy in a future consistory just to really make a point.
Next we have future Cardinal 74 year old Peruvian Archbishop Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO, and by the way, if my pronunciation is off on this, well I’m doing my best to follow Pope Francis, because I figure he’s probably got it relatively close. No pressure on him of course, it’s not like this is probably the most important announcement of these cardinal’s lives and they would prefer to hear their names said correctly.
After that, we have 72 year old Argentinian Archbishop Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC who, as a Vincentian, is the first but not last on the list from a religious order.
After that, we have 68 year old Ecuadorian Archbishop Luis Gerardo CABRERA HERRERA, which is a fun name to say. He’ll actually be 69 when the consistory rolls around, and he’s a Franciscan.
After that we have future Cardinal Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB a 67 year old Chilean Archbishop, and yeah, there’s a fair amount of names on this list from South America.
But then we start a brief Asian swing, with 65 year old Japanese Archbishop Tarcisio Isao KIKUCHI, a Verbite, who will actually be 66 when the consistory actually rolls around.
Next, we finish that brief Asian tour with 65 year old Philippine bishop Pablo Virgilio SIONGCO DAVID, who apparently goes by the charming nickname “Ambo”.
Then there’s 68 year old Serbian Archbishop Ladislav NEMET another Verbite, that is the Society of the Divine Word by the way, I don’t think we’ve come across them before, but we’ll certainly be talking about them more after today.
Then there’s the 64 year old Brazilian Archbishop, Jaime SPENGLER the second Franciscan on the list.
From Africa, we have a 63 year old Archbishop from the Ivory Coast by the name of Ignace BESSI DOGBO, at least that’s how Pope Francis pronounced it, although to me it looks like DOGBO
Also representing the continent of Africa we have Jean-Paul VESCO, a 62 year old who was born in Lyon, France, who’s serving as an archbishop in Algeria. He’s a Dominican.
After that we have a 62 year old Indonesian bishop by the name of Paskalis Bruno SYUKUR, the third Franciscan on our list,
And we’re not quite done with Franciscans, because the next name on the list of that of a Conventual Franciscan, a 61 year old Belgian prelate by the name of Dominique Joseph MATHIEU, who, believe it or not, is actually serving as an archbishop of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
After that we’ve got a couple of Italians, first up the 57 year old Archbishop of Turn, Roberto REPOLE,
Followed by the new Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, 53 year old bishop Baldassare REINA, who will be 54 by the time of the consistory in December.
Next on the list, closer to home for many of us though there are no Americans on the list, we have a 53 year old Archbishop of Toronto, Canada, future Cardinal Francis LEO.
Next we have the Coadjutor Archpriest of the Papal Basilica Mary Major, Bishop Rolandas MAKRICKAS a 52 year old from Lithuania.
And then, perhaps tying the gentleman representing Iran for the most surprising, we have 44 year old Mykola BYCHOK, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Redemptorist who is heading the Eparchy of Saint Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians, so he’s representing Australia, though obviously there’s multinational ties there. His appointment basically indirectly confirms that Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who we’ve talked about before, will not be getting a red had under Pope Francis. Shevchuk, for his part, has been pretty diplomatic about it, expressing his cordial appreciation to Pope Francis. And I want to note again that Bychok is 44, he was born in the 80s. That’s weird. I was born in the 80s. You’ve gotta go back over 50 years to find someone who was younger at their elevation to the cardinalate than he’s gonna be.
The remaining names on the list are all priests, not bishops, at least at this time. First, future Cardinal Timothy Peter Joseph RADCLIFFE, a 79 year old British Dominican who Pope Francis described simply as a “theologian” in his announcement, which will be interesting because based on his previous statements, he will probably be the most pro LGBT person in the College of Cardinals until Pope Francis gets around to nominating Fr James Martin. I kid, I kid. Seriously though, we will get into it, he’s got some surprising views on that front.
After that, there’s a 59 year old Italian priest named Fabio BAGGIO who’s currently the Under Secretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, who also happens to be a Scalibrinian, rounding up our representatives from the religious orders.
The last name on the list is the 51 year old Indian priest who has been helping plan Pope Francis’ trips, George Jacob KOOVAKAD, who belongs to the Syro-Malabar Rite.
Altogether, 11 of the 21, that is, most of them, are from religious orders, with lots of Franciscans, and notable, Pope Francis is tripling the number of Verbite Cardinals in history. There was one other before, who was elevated shortly after World War II and died in the 60s.
17 out of the 21 future Cardinals are under the age of 70, and there’s certainly a huge age range with a 55 year gap between Bychok and Acerbi. As usual, most of the names are from the Latin Rite, but keep in mind in addition to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bychok, Koovakad hails from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church which now has two Cardinals, notably not including their new Major Archbishop who came onto the scene last year. That’s enough for today, I’ll see you all this weekend. Thank you for listening, God bless you all! Thanks, Joe!
