Pope Francis celebrates this Saturday his tenth consistory of “creation of new cardinals”, with which he will make 21 new cardinals from 17 different countries. It will be the first time that Francisco does not include Spaniards among his appointments for the conclave. The new cardinal electors can be considered “long-term” since their average age is only 62.5 years, and one of them is 79. They have very varied profiles, probably to guarantee that in a possible papal election all the issues must be considered. sensitivities that exist in the Catholic Church.
After the ceremony, there will be 253 cardinals, of which 140 are under 80 years old and have the right to participate in the conclave. Consequently, Francis provisionally repeals the Vatican norm that limits to 120 the number of cardinals with the right to intervene in a possible papal election.
In Saint Peter’s Basilica there will be pilgrims from Palestine and Iran, since among those who will receive the biretta are the bishop of Tehran and the bishop of Santiago de Chile, son of Palestinian emigrants. The first cardinal of Tehran is the Franciscan Dominique Mathieu, born 61 years ago in Bruges (Belgium). In his diocese, the only one in Iran, there are about 6,000 baptized people, five priests and five nuns. He laments that he often celebrates Mass without any participants, but that he is not alone “because the Mass is celebrated in communion with the entire Church. This is the Church.
The most prestigious bishop of Chile
Also on the list is Fernando Chomalí, 67, Chile’s most prestigious bishop, whose grandparents emigrated from Palestine. He was ordained a priest after having worked as a civil engineer, but he has great communicator skills and has published a book of poetry. “My grandparents are Palestinians, and that makes me proud, but I am a bishop in Chile,” he clarifies to ABC. “The Palestinian world has been happy with this appointment, and I will always be available to end the war, in that sense, as a cardinal many doors are opened to provide that service,” he adds.
Among the new Latin cardinals is also the primate of Argentina, Vicente Bokalic Iglic, 72 years old, who was auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires with Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and who explains to ABC that as cardinal he considers that the priority of the Church is “to be where there is pain and suffering, which is where you have to be; provoke encounters, not close ourselves in on ourselves. He will also be Cardinal Carlos Castillo, archbishop of Lima, 74 years old, and disciple of Gustavo Gutiérrez, one of the fathers of Liberation Theology. Luis Cabrera Herrera, 69, comes from Guayaquil (Ecuador), who played a fundamental role in 2019 to pacify the country during the protests against President Lenín Moreno. The last one from Latin America is the Franciscan Jaime Spengler, president of the Brazilian bishops and of the body that coordinates the Latin episcopates, Celam.
From Europe comes the Dominican Timothy Radcliffe, 79, who taught Sacred Scripture at the University of Oxford and directed the “Las Casas Institute” there, which promotes social justice and human rights. On the eve of the ceremony he assures ABC that “at this moment the priority of the Church is to bring peace to the world” and that “if they elected me Pope I would never accept the appointment.”
Ukrainian Mykola Bychok, Greek Catholic bishop in Melbourne, Australia, and the youngest cardinal
Peace is also the priority of the Ukrainian Mykola Bychok, Greek Catholic bishop in Melbourne, Australia, who at 44 years old becomes the youngest cardinal, and who considers that with his appointment “the Pope gives voice to the situation of a country victim of war.
Go through life barefoot
Another European is the Lithuanian Rolandas Makirckas, 52, who dreamed of being an airplane pilot, but ended up monitoring the accounts of the Vatican Secretariat of State after the scandals. This Friday he stressed to ABC that the Pope has advised him to “go through life barefoot, without shoes, to be able to feel the pain of the people.” Also from this Saturday, for the first time Serbia will have a cardinal, the archbishop of Belgrade, Ladislav Nemet, 68 years old.
The Italian bloc is the largest. It is headed by the theologian and archbishop of Turin Roberto Repole, 57 years old. It also includes the Sicilian Baldassare Reina, the Pope’s vicar for Rome; Mimmo Battaglia, 61-year-old archbishop of Naples; and Fabio Baggio, 59, who assisted migrants in Buenos Aires when Jorge Mario Bergoglio was archbishop of this city. Baggio coordinates the Vatican’s measures in this area, and in the past has composed works of sacred, liturgical and gospel music.
There are two new cardinals from the Far East, Tokyo Archbishop Tarcisio Kikuchi, 66, who was a missionary in Ghana and presides over Caritas Internationalis, and Filipino Pablo Siongco David, 65, who received death threats for his courageous criticism of rape. of human rights by the Duterte government in its war on drugs. The government even accused him of stealing donations and being involved in drug trafficking.
Francis will make two African cardinals, Ignace Bessi Dogbo, archbishop of Abidjan, in the Ivory Coast, 62 years old; and the Frenchman Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Alger, in Algeria. This 62-year-old athlete, who did the New York marathon in 1989, was tasked with re-establishing the presence of the Dominicans in Tlemcen (Algeria) after the assassination of Bishop Pierre Claverie and the monks of Tibhirine.
There are also three diplomats: the organizer of papal trips, George Koovakad, born in India 52 years ago; the Archbishop of Toronto, Francis Leo, 53, who as secretary of the Episcopal Conference got all the Canadian bishops to agree on the apology to the indigenous people and the Pope’s trip to the country; and Angelo Acerbi, star of the consistory.
This 99-year-old retired nuncio lives in Casa Santa Marta, with Pope Francis. In 1974, Pope Paul VI sent him to Madrid to resolve the famous “Añoveros Case”, which broke out when, at the end of Franco’s rule, the bishop of Bilbao, Antonio Añoveros, distributed a message in defense of the “just freedom” of the people. Basque and requested that his “specific identity” be respected. The Franco regime considered it “an attack against the unity of Spain” and requested that he be expelled from the country. The bishop refused, but Acerbi convinced him to move to Madrid for a “vacation” in exchange for not having to recant. Acerbi was the nuncio in Colombia when on February 27, 1980 he was taken hostage along with 26 other people, most of them diplomats, in a guerrilla attack on the embassy of the Dominican Republic. They released him two months later, in Cuba. The only thing he needed was to be a cardinal.
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