By Charles Igwe
During his Sunday Angelus address on July 9, Pope Francis announced the upcoming consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals at the end of September. The list includes individuals from various backgrounds and countries, reflecting the universality of the Church.
Among the notable appointments are American Archbishop Robert Prevost, the new prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, and French Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who has been serving as the Vatican envoy to the United States since 2016.
The roster also features key papal allies, such as Italian Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Eastern Churches, and Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, recently appointed as the head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Additional cardinals hail from countries like South Africa, Colombia, Malaysia, and South Sudan, where Pope Francis visited earlier this year to promote peace in the region.
Out of the 21 cardinals, 18 will be cardinal electors eligible to participate in the conclave to elect the next pope, while three will be non-electors due to their age.
With these new appointments, Pope Francis will have appointed nearly three-quarters of the cardinals who will participate in the election of his successor.
The consistory will take place shortly after the pope’s expected visit to Marseille on September 23 and just before the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, an important event focusing on making the Church more inclusive and welcoming.
Pope Francis’s selection of new cardinals reflects his commitment to prioritizing the global peripheries and leaving a lasting impact on the Catholic Church.
Below is the complete list of the 21 new cardinals appointed by Pope Francis:
Electors:
Bishop Robert Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops
Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches
Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
Archbishop Emil Tscherrig, Apostolic Nuncio to Italy
Archbishop Christoph Pierre, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States
Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Patriarch of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, South Africa
Archbishop Ángel Sixto Rossi S.J. of Córdoba, Argentina
Archbishop Luis Rueda Aparicio of Bogotá, Colombia
Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś of Łódź, Poland
Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla of Juba, South Sudan
Archbishop Jose Cobo Cano of Madrid, Spain
Coadjutor Archbishop Protase Rugambwa of Tabora, Tanzania
Bishop Sebastian Francs of Penang, Malaysia
Bishop Stephen Chow of Hong Kong
Bishop François-Xavier Bustillo of Ajaccio, France
Auxiliary Bishop Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar of Lisbon, Portugal
Father Ángel Fernandez Artime, Major Rector of the Salesians
Non-electors:
Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, apostolic nuncio emeritus
Archbishop Diego Padron Sanchez, archbishop emeritus of Cumaná, Italy
Father Luis Pascual, confessor in the shrine of Our Lady Pompei in Buenos Aires.
