(ZENIT News / Rome, 10.10.2024).- On Sunday, October 6, Pope Francis announced the creation of 21 new Cardinals. It’s the tenth occasion on which the Holy Father has created Cardinals during his pontificate, which means an average of a Consistory per year in the history of his pontificate. The date for the coming tenth Consistory is December 8, 2024, namely, two months after making his announcement. Following are ten relevant facts:
1)A Record of Cardinals: Eight out of 10 Cardinals have been appointed by Pope Francis
The College of Cardinals increases to a total of 256 Cardinals, 141 of whom would be Electors in an eventual Conclave, being younger than 80, exceeding the limit of 120 Cardinal Electors fixed by Paul VI, still in force, although not respected. 79% of the current Cardinals have been chosen by Pope Francis.
2) A Cardinal Appointment as Message for Israel?
Archbishop Dominique Mathieu, of the Friars Minor Conventuals, is the Latin Bishop of the Iranian capital,Teheran. The appointment takes place in the context of the war-tension between Iran and Israel, the reason some media have read this appointment with this key. Israel also has a Cardinal: the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is also so for Palestine, Cyprus and Jordan. Catholics are fewer than 1% of the population in Iran (21,000 baptized, according to the estimate of the U.S. Department of State), served by a total of five priests. The Holy See has had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1954. These relations have not been broken.
3) A Consolation for Ukraine with a Message for Russia?
Monsignor Mykola Bychok, of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, although a Pastor in Melbourne, Australia, was chosen Cardinal. He is a Ukrainian Bishop; hence, the only Ukrainian in the College of Cardinals.
4) The Leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics Continues Being So Although He Is Not a Cardinal
However, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, Monsignor Bychok, is his subaltern in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic community. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk is still without a Cardinal’s hat. Already in previous Consistories it was evident that the public contestations of the leader of the most numerous Catholic community of Eastern Rite have not gone down well with Pope Francis, as they call into question the Holy See’s leadership in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
5) Two Age Records: The Youngest and Eldest Cardinal
For this tenth Consistory the Pope will create Cardinal two Monsignors: a 99-year-old and a 44-year-old. They are Monsignor Angelo Acerbi and Monsignor Mykola Bychok, respectively. The former was a career diplomat, (the Pope’s Nuncio in Hungary, Japan, the Low Countries, Brazil, New Zealand, Moldavia and France), and the latter a Redemptorist religious of the largest Eastern Rite Catholic community: Ukraine’s.
6) A Cardinal Former Hostage of the Colombian Guerrilla
Monsignor Angelo Acerbi was a hostage of the Colombian guerrilla for a month and a half. The event occurred in 1979, under Saint John Paul II’s pontificate.
7) Africa, Punished after Rejecting Fiducia Supplicans?
Several commentators have noted that for this tenth Consistory the Pope chose only one African Bishop — of the Ivory Coast. There is a second African chosen, but he doesn’t live in Africa and works in the Roman Curia, organizing papal trips. It is alleged that it’s a response to the virtually unanimous opposition of the African Episcopate to the Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, which allows the “pastoral blessing of homosexual couples.”
8) Over Represented Countries: The Case of Argentina and The Case of Mexico
If one takes into account the number of Catholics by population, one finds that Argentina has reached an over representation with eight Cardinals (four Electors and four Non-Electors). On the contrary, the second country with the largest number of Catholics, Mexico, only has six Cardinals (two Electors, that of Mexico City and that of Guadalajara, and four Non-Electors).
Other over represented countries are: Spain (eight Cardinal Electors and seven Non-Electors; Portugal (four Cardinal Electors and two Non-Electors; Lithuania (three Cardinal Electors); Indonesia (two Cardinal Electors and one Non-Elector) and Japan (two Cardinal Electors). Under represented on the contrary are: France (one Cardinal Elector and six Non-Electors); Colombia (one Elector and two Non-Electors); Nigeria (one Elector and two Non-Electors); Venezuela (two Non-Electors) and South Korea (one Elector and one Non-Elector).
9) An Openly Pro LGBT+ Dominican Cardinal
The Pope has had the former Superior General of the Dominicans and current Preacher of the Synod on Synodality enter the College of Cardinals: Friar Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, PO. Since 1990 he has been an open promoter and preacher of a change in doctrine regarding the Church’s moral position on homosexuality. His position has created division within his own Order. He is 79 so that he would only be able to vote if a Conclave is held in less than a year.
10) The Youngest Cardinals Who Will Be the Longest as Such from this New Conclave
Among the 21 new Cardinals, there are six under sixty, so they are regarded as “young Cardinals.” Considering that a Cardinal loses the right to vote in a Conclave once he is eighty, these new Cardinals will possibly have several Conclaves in front of them. They are:
– Mykola Bychok, 44, Ukrainian Redemptorist, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Eparch of Melbourne, Australia.
– Rolandas Makrickas, 52, Lithuanian, Coadjutor Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
– Francis Leo, 53, Archbishop of Toronto, Canada.
– Baldassare Reina, 53, the Pope’s Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome
– Roberto Repole, 57, Archbishop of Turin, Italy.
– Fabio Baggio, 59, Scalabrinian, Under-Secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development.
Added to these new Cardinals are fourteen other Cardinals of previous Consistories who are 60 or younger. They are:
-Giorgio Marengo, 50, Italian, Immaculata missionary, “Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia.
-Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar, 50, Bishop of Setúbal, Portugal, former Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon, responsible for the Lisbon WYD.
-François-Xavier Bustillo, 55, Spanish Conventual Franciscan, Bishop of Ajaccio, Corsica, France.
-Virgilio do Carmo da Silva, 56, Salesian, Archbishop of Dili, East Timor.
-Paulo Cezar Costa, 57, Archbishop of Brasilia, Brazil.
-Dieudonné Cardinal Nzapalainga, C.S.Sp., 57, Spiritan, Archbishop of Bangui, Central African Republic.
-José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, 58, Portuguese, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
-Mauro Maria Gambetti, 58, Italian Conventual Franciscan, Archpriest of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
-José Cobo Cano, 59, Archbishop of Madrid, Spain.
-Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 59, Italian Franciscan, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
-Augusto Paolo Lojudice, 60, Italian, Archbishop of Sienna, Italy.
-Grzegorz Wojciech Rys, 60, Archbishop of Lódź, Poland.
-Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, 60, Archbishop of Juba, South Sudan.
-Konrad Krajewski, 60, Polish, Prefect of the Dicastery for Charity and the Pope’s Almoner.
