The Pope integrated a Cardinal into the Consistory: the Archbishop of Naples.

Salvatore Cernuzio – Vatican City

There will be 21 new cardinals who will receive the red cap at the consistory on December 7. Pope Francis has added a new name to the list of future cardinals, that of Monsignor Domenico Battaglia, Archbishop of Naples since December 2020.

The news was announced this afternoon by Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican Press Office, via a statement: “Pope Francis has announced that he has added the names of the new cardinals who will be created during the next consistory on December 7. His Excellency Domenico Battaglia, Archbishop of Naples.

The list of new cardinals is once again 21.

As announced at the end of the Angelus on 6 October, the number of cardinals elected, which had been reduced following the resignation on 22 October of the Indonesian Bishop of Bogor, Monsignor Pascalis Bruno Sucur, “in order to rise to the priestly life”. , thus returning to the original number.

With the election of Archbishop Roberto Repole, Turin, a large Italian diocese, once again became the seat of cardinals.

committed to the most delicate

Battaglia, or rather “Don Mimmo”, as everyone knows him and continues to call him, is a prominent pastoral figure in southern Italy, with a past as a “street priest” who particularly preached to young people and Committed to drug addicts. The Pope also wanted him among the members of the two sessions of the Synod.

Calabrian by birth, originally from Satriano (CZ), 61 years old, formerly Bishop of the Neapolitan Archdiocese of the Diocese of Cerreto Sannita-Tellese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti in the Province of Benevento. Battaglia completed his philosophical-theological studies at the Pontifical Regional Seminary “St. Pius X” in Catanzaro. Ordained a priest on 6 February 1988, over the years he has been parish priest, rector, director of diocesan offices and canon. On June 24, 2016, he was elected by Pope Francis to the episcopal see of Cerreto Sannita-Tellese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti. Episcopal consecration on September 3 and his inauguration as head of the Community of Benevento on October 2, 2016, choosing as the episcopal motto the words of Jesus to Bartimaeus – the blind son of Timaeus, who was sitting by the roadside asking for alms -: “Dare, get up, it’s calling you!” (“Have faith, rise up, speak out!”).

focus on the latest

Monsignor Battaglia’s attention and commitment are special towards the vulnerable and marginalized: in fact, he was at the side of people addicted to drugs, from 1992 to 2016, he guided the “Centro Calabrese di Solidarieta”, created by Don Mario Picchi. There was a structure associated with the medical communities of. FICT), of which he was the National President from 2006 to 2015. From 2000 to 2006 he was also vice-president of the diocesan aid and charity work, the Betania di Catanzaro Foundation.

In Naples, where he is admired by the local clergy and faithful, the new archbishop introduced himself in his first message as “a brother who goes among brothers” in a city, “the treasure of the South”, in which there is hope. And struggle with many social problems. Who have always condemned without ceasing to stigmatize incidents of violence and crime. whom he has always looked upon with a shepherd’s eye, as he will continue to do as Cardinal.

College of Cardinals

In the next consistory, the tenth – as stated – that of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the only one among the future cardinals not to be an elector (former Nuncio Acerbi): apart from Battaglia there are 11 Europeans, of whom 5 are Italians; 6 are from the American continent, of which 5 are South American, 3 Asian and one African. As of December 7, the College of Cardinals will be composed of 256 members, of whom 141 are electors and 115 non-electors.