Pope Francis announced this Sunday (11), after the Angelus prayer, that he will elevate 21 clerics to the rank of cardinal. Five religious from South America (three Argentineans, one Colombian and one Venezuelan) make up the list of those chosen, which also includes bishops from places where Catholics represent a small minority – such as South Sudan, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
The consistory, as the naming ceremony is called, is scheduled for September 30 of this year. It will be the ninth of the Pontificate of Pope Francis, who in August 2022 inaugurated two Brazilians – Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, Archbishop of Manaus, and Paulo Cezar Costa, Archbishop of Brasília.
Eighteen of the new cardinals are under 80 and could participate in an eventual conclave to choose the next pope. The other three, non-voting, will be named in recognition of their service to the Church.
Among the highlights of the new list are two clerics from geopolitical regions that are of concern to the Vatican. Monsignor Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, is the top Catholic priest in the Middle East – where attacks on the Christian community have intensified in recent years.
The bishop of Hong Kong, Stephen Sal-yan Chow, has been considered a name with good transit in China, a country in which the communist leadership has always maintained a tense relationship with the Church.
The South American religious included in the list are the Colombian Luis José Rueda Aparicio (Archbishop of Bogotá), the Venezuelan Diego Rafael Padrón Sánchez (Archbishop Emeritus of Cumaná) and the Argentines Víctor Manuel Fernández (Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith), Ángel Sixto Rossi (Archbishop of Córdoba) and Luis Pascual Dri (confessor of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pompeii).
In his address this Sunday, Pope Francis said that the different backgrounds of the new cardinals “expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to announce the merciful love of God to all men on earth”. “Moreover, the inclusion of new cardinals in the Diocese of Rome demonstrates the inseparable link between the See of Peter and the churches throughout the world,” he added.
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