(CNN Spanish) – Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals this Sunday, increasing the number of members of the College of Cardinals who will elect his successor.
The decision is a gesture that highlights his determination to revamp the eccentric group. During his papal tenure, Francis reformed the structure of the body that will elect his successor to make it more representative of the global character of the Catholic Church.
He abolished the old unwritten rule by which bishops of certain dioceses (many of them in Italy) were automatically made cardinals and instead assigned “red hats” to the peripheries.
An example of this is that among the cardinals appointed by the Pope, five are Latin Americans.
He was born on February 28, 1950 in Lima, Peru. After studying in his native Lima, Castillo Matasoglio was sent to Rome to pursue ecclesiastical studies. According to his biography published on the Vatican News site, he holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
In 1984 he was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Lima. The bishop has served as professor of theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and advisor to the National Union of Catholic Students, as well as national advisor to the Episcopal Youth Commission in Peru.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Peruvian capital.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bokalić studied philosophy at the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel and theology at the Buenos Aires Seminary. He was ordained priest in 1978.
The 72-year-old bishop, responsible for vocational and youth ministry in the Argentinian capital, was a curate and bursar – as the person who manages the property of a church or diocese is designated. During various periods he has worked at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish and was a missionary and parish priest in the Diocese of Goiás.
As the Vatican site notes, he received episcopal consecration in 2010 and three years later, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Santiago del Estero in northern Argentina.
He was born on October 11, 1955 in Azogs, Ecuador. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the Antonianum in Rome.
He was ordained a priest in 1983 and since then, he has held positions as director of the Card B. Echeverría Philosophical-Theological Institute in Quito and secretary of the Ecumenism Sector of the Episcopal Commission of Teaching and Doctrine of the Ecuadorian Episcopal Church. conference.
From 2003 to 2009 he was definer of the Franciscan Order and representative of the Minister General for the Franciscan Provinces of Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the Vatican, he has been Archbishop of Guayaquil since 2015.
Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomali Poor
He was born on 10 March 1957 in Santiago, Chile. He studied civil engineering at the country’s Pontifical Catholic University and philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago.
In 1991 he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile. In addition, he holds a degree in moral theology from the Pontifical Alphonsine Academy in Rome and a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He also has a master’s degree in bioethics from the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Science in Rome.
In 2023 he was appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Chile. He is currently Vice President of the Chilean Episcopal Conference.
Originally from the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, he was born on September 6, 1960. He has studied philosophy at the Philosophical Institute of São Boventura in Campo Largo, and theology at both the Franciscan Theological Institute of Petrópolis and the Theological Institute of São Paulo. Institute from Jerusalem, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Sacred Scripture.
He has a degree in Philosophy from the Pontifical Ateneo Antonianum de Toma and has worked as a professor in various institutions in Brazil.
Spengler, 64, was named titular and auxiliary bishop of Porto Alegre. He received episcopal ordination in 2011 and two years later was named Metropolitan Archbishop of Porto Alegre.
This is the full list of new cardinals:
- Angelo Acerbi, Apostolic Nuncio.
- Carlos Gustavo Castillo Matasoglio, Archbishop of Lima, Peru.
- Vicente Bokalík Iglik, Archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina.
- Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, Archbishop of Guayaquil, Ecuador.
- Fernando Natalio Chomali Poor, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile.
- Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, Archbishop of Tokyo, Japan.
- Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, Bishop of Caloocan, Philippines.
- Ladislav Nemet, Archbishop of Belgrade, Smederevo, Serbia.
- Jaime Spengler, Archbishop of Porto Alegre, Brazil.
- Ignace Bessie Dogbo, Archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
- Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers, Algeria.
- Pascalis Bruno Sykur, Bishop of Bogor, Indonesia.
- Dominic Joseph Mathew, Archbishop of Tehran, Iran.
- Roberto Repole, Archbishop of Turin, Italy.
- Baldassare Riina, Diocese of Rome.
- Francis Leo, Archbishop of Toronto, Canada.
- Rolandus Makaricus, Coadjutor Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major.
- Mykola Bychok, Bishop of Ukraine.
- Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, theologian.
- Fabio Baggio, Undersecretary of the Department for Integral Human Development Services.
- George Jacob Couvacaud, official of the Secretariat of State, responsible for the papal visit.