Pope announces 21 new cardinals, but there is no Spaniard among them

Technically, the Pope “creates” new cardinals, since he does not appoint them for special merits. Although the absence of Spaniards is surprising, it was difficult for Francis to include them in his list, since the bishops of cardinal dioceses and the Spaniards who preside over the dicastery already have the purple.

The Pope has named seven new European cardinals: Italian nuncio Angelo Acerbi, 99; Ladislav Nemet, Archbishop of Belgrade (Serbia), 68; Archbishop Roberto Repole of Turin (Italy), 57 years old; The new priest of the Diocese of Rome, Baldassare Riina, 53; Lithuanian Rolandas Makarikas, archimandrite of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, 52 years old; London Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe, 79; and Fabio Baggio, 59, who oversees the Vatican’s migrant aid efforts.

From Latin America he has selected five Latin American archbishops such as Carlos Gustavo Castillo of Lima (Peru), 74; Luis Gerardo Cabrera, 68, from Guayaquil (Ecuador); and Fernando Chomali, 67, from Santiago de Chile. Also the Primate of Argentina, Archbishop Vicente Bokalík Iglic of Santiago del Estero, is 72, and Archbishop Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, who presides over the Episcopal Conference of Brazil and Salem, and who is 64.

one from the middle east

From North America, only Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo, 53, who served a diplomatic career at the Vatican, will be made a cardinal. He will create three cardinals from the Far East: Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, Archbishop of Tokyo (Japan), 65; Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, Bishop of Caloocan and President of the Episcopal Conference of the Philippines, 65; Pascalis Bruno Sykur, Bishop of Bogor, Indonesia, 62.

Also from Asia is the 52-year-old organizer of papal trips, Indian George Jacob Kouvakad; And the Middle East has named the Archbishop of Tehran, Belgian Franciscan Dominic Joseph Mathieu, 61, as a cardinal.

From Africa he would create the Primate of Ivory Coast, Ignace Bessie, Archbishop of Abidjan, aged 63, a cardinal; Archbishop of Algeria (Algeria), Frenchman Jean-Paul Vesco, 62.

From Australia they have named Mykola Bychok, a 44-year-old Ukrainian who is from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

With this ceremony he will surpass the number of consistories held by his predecessor John Paul II, who held only nine. However, he would have named 163 cardinals, far fewer than the 231 created by John Paul II. “Its origin expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to proclaim God’s merciful love for all human beings on earth. Its inclusion in the Diocese of Rome therefore reveals the inseparable connection between the vision of Peter and the particular churches spread throughout the world,” he explained.