Pope Francis to Name 21 New Cardinals in December

Pope Francis announced on Sunday (Oct. 6) his intention to name 21 Catholic bishops and priests as cardinals later this year. 

At the end of his weekly Angelus address, the pope provided the names of the cardinal-designates, saying that a consistory, a ceremony conferring such designates into the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals, would be held on Dec. 8 this year. 

Who Are the New Cardinals?

State-run media outlet Vatican News provided the list of the bishops and priests, most of which are major prelates of several countries in the world, that are to to don the scarlet biretta in the upcoming consistory: 

• Angelo Acerbi (99), former Apostolic Nuncio to the Netherlands, Hungary, Moldova, and Colombia; former Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Fiji and New Zealand; former Apostolic Delegate to the Pacific Ocean (Italy)
• Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio (74), Archbishop of Lima (Peru)
• Vicente Bokalic Iglic CM (72), Archbishop of Santiago del Estero and Primate of Argentina
• Luis Cabrera Herrera, OFM (68), Archbishop of Guayaquil (Ecuador)
• Fernando Chomalí Garib (67), Archbishop of Santiago (Chile)
• Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD (65), Archbishop of Tokyo and President of Caritas Internationalis (Japan)
• Pablo Virgilio David (65), Bishop of Caloocan (Philippines)
• Ladislav Nemet, SVD (68), Catholic Archbishop of Belgrade (Serbia)
• Jaime Spengler (64), OFM, Archbishop of Porto Alegre (Brazil)
• Ignace Bessi Dogbo (63), Archbishop of Abidjan (Ivory Coast)
• Jean-Paul Vesco, OP (62), Archbishop of Algiers (Algeria)
• Paskalis Bruno Syukur, OFM (62), Bishop of Bogor (Indonesia)
• Dominique Mathieu, OFMConv (61), Archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan (Belgium/Iran)
• Roberto Repole (57), Archbishop of Turin and Bishop of Susa (Italy)
• Baldassare Reina (54), Auxiliary Bishop and Vice-Regent of Rome, (also named Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome during the announcement)
• Francis Leo (53), Archbishop of Toronto (Canada)
• Rolandas Makrickas (52), Coadjutor Archpriest of Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (Lithuania)
• Mykola Bychok, CSsR (44), Ukrainian Greek Catholic Bishop of Melbourne (Ukraine/Australia)
• Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP (79), prominent theologian and former Master of the Order of Preachers (UK)
• Fr. Fabio Baggio, CS (59), Undersecretary of Migrants and Refugees Section, Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development (Italy)
• Msgr. George Jacob Koovakad (51), travel official for the Vatican’s Secretariat of State (India)

Of particular note in the list of new cardinals is Radcliffe, a progressive English Dominican theologian who is currently involved as a non-episcopal representative of the ongoing synod in the Vatican that began last year, who has been criticized for his perspective on the role of LGBTQ+ Catholics in the church. 

Another progressive cardinal-to-be in the list is David, a Filipino bishop currently serving as president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, who was lauded by progressives for his tough stance against the Rodrigo Duterte presidency but also equally criticized by traditionalist Catholics on several issues, including his perspective on the death of Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus in the Bible, as well as his comments on the Catholic liturgy. 

The previous consistory of cardinals happened in September 2023, which included the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was named cardinal merely days before the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 that year. That consistory also included the Bishop of Hong Kong, Stephen Chow, and Argentinian prelate Victor Manuel Fernandez, who currently serves as the Vatican’s current chief theologian.

The New Cardinals by the Numbers

Of the 21 new cardinal-designates, at least one is an honorary naming, that of 99-year-old retired Holy See diplomat Archbishop Angelo Acerbi. 

Eleven of the new cardinals belong to a religious order or congregation, including three Franciscans, while the remaining 10 are secular diocesan clerics. 

Three of the new cardinals who are not bishops are either prominent theologians (i.e. Radcliffe), or priests who work at the Vatican. 

It is understood that all major regions of the world have been represented in the upcoming consistory, with seven cardinals coming from Europe, including two from the Diocese of Rome, of which 87-year-old Francis is its bishop. Five of the new cardinals were from South America, four from Asia, and two from Africa, while Leo is the sole North American to be named cardinal in December.

Although of Belgian descent, Cardinal-designate Mathieu is the Archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan, a precarious diocese in Iran due to the recent conflicts in the Middle East that stemmed from the war between Israel and Hamas. 

Representing Oceania and the Pacific is Bishop Mykola Bychok, a Redemptorist Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate whose seat is in Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria. Bychok, 44, would also become the youngest cardinal upon being formally named in the December consistory, taking the title from the 50-year-old Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Cardinal Giorgio Marengo.

The role of a cardinal in the Catholic Church is crucial in determining who would become the next pope, who also always bears the title of Bishop of Rome. It is understood that whenever a pope dies or abdicates, cardinals under 80 years old on the day the papacy is vacated are to travel to Rome to elect his successor in a process called a conclave. While any unmarried baptized Catholic man can technically become pope, it is customary, and later officially codified during the papacy of John Paul II, that popes would be elected from among the participating cardinals. 

Popes also name prominent Catholic priests as cardinals despite not being made bishops as an appreciative gesture from the Vatican for their individual efforts to Catholicism. Normally, such honorary cardinals can be named beyond the age of 80, and in the case of nominated priests, even be entitled to wear vestments and items typically worn by bishops. Non-bishop cardinals could even be consecrated as bishops themselves unless they obtained dispensation from being ordained one. Such cardinals would still be barred from participating in a papal conclave if they are over 80.

Cardinals Turning 80 in 2025

Reuters reported that the number of cardinal electors would increase to over 140 by the beginning of 2025, with around 80% of them named by Francis. However, Cardinal-designate Radcliffe would turn 80 on August 22, 2025, which meant his inclusion into the College of Cardinals is effectively an honorary conferral unless Francis dies or resigns before his 80th birthday.

The following are the other cardinals who would turn 80 in 2025: 

• George Alencherry (India)
• Celestino Aós Braco (Chile)
• Joseph Coutts (Pakistan)
• Antonio Cañizares Llovera (Spain)
• Oswald Gracias (India)
• Jean-Pierre Kutwa (Ivory Coast)
• Vincent Nichols (UK)
• Carlos Osoro Sierra (Spain)
• Philippe Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso)
• Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo (Venezuela)
• Vinko Puljić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Francisco Robles Ortega (Mexico)
• Stanisław Ryłko (Poland)
• Robert Sarah (Guinea)
• Christoph Schönborn (Austria) 
• Fernando Vérgez Alzaga (Spain)

Meanwhile, 76-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a 2018 Francis appointee and former apostolic nuncio to Cuba, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Angola, has since forfeited the rights and privileges associated to him as a cardinal in 2020, including the right to vote and be elected pope in the next conclave, after he was convicted of corruption charges during his time as a Vatican diplomat. Becciu was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison while retaining his title of cardinal.