The Pope has announced the convocation of a Consistory on September 30 to designate 21 new cardinals, among them the recently appointed Archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo Cano, the Rector Major of the Salesians, Ángel Fernández Artime, and the bishop of the French town from Ajaccio (on the island of Corsica), the Spanish Francisco Javier Bustillo.
After the Sunday Angelus prayer from the window of the Apostolic Palace, Francis announced the creation of a total of 21 new cardinals, of which 18 may succeed him in a possible conclave for being under 80 years of age, as dictated by Canon Law.
“I am happy to announce that on September 30 I will hold a Consistory for the appointment of new cardinals. Their provenance expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to announce God’s merciful love for all men on earth. The inclusion of new cardinals cardinals in the diocese of Rome, furthermore, it manifests the inseparable link between the See of Peter and the particular Churches throughout the world”, assured Pope Francis.
The three new cardinals with more than 80 years are the Venezuelan Diego Padrón Sánchez, archbishop emeritus of Cumaná; the Capuchin friar Luis Pascual Dri, confessor of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pompeii in Buenos Aires and the Italian nuncio Agostino Marchetto.
Among the new appointments are two other Argentines, beginning with the new prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, Víctor Manuel Fernández, a personal friend of the pontiff, as well as the archbishop of Córdoba, Monsignor Ángel Sixto Rossi.
In addition, the archbishop of Bogotá, the Colombian Luis Rueda Aparicio, will receive the purple.
The future “papables” come from all continents and there are also several nuncios, diplomats from the Holy See, and members of the Roman Curia. For example, they include the prefect of the Department for Bishops, the American Robert Francis Prevost; that of Oriental Churches, the Italian Claudio Gugerotti, or the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
Among the cardinal diplomats will be the apostolic nuncio in San Marino, Emil Paul Tscherrig, or the French Christophe Pierre, representative of the Holy See in the United States.
The Archbishop of Cape Town, the South African Stephen Brislin, will also be made cardinals; the one from Malaysia Penang, Sebastian Francis; Hong Kong’s Stephen Chow Sau-yan; the one from Juba, the Sudanese Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, or the assistant from Lisbon, Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar.
Also the Polish Grzegorz Rys, Archbishop of Lodz, and the Tanzanian Protase Rugambwa, Coadjutor Archbishop of Tabora.
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