Pope Francis announces the creation of 21 new Cardinals

Pope Francis announced he would create 21 new cardinals Dec. 8, including a 99-year-old former nuncio and the 44-year-old Ukrainian bishop who heads his church’s eparchy in Melbourne, Australia.

The 21 cardinals-designate named by the pope Oct. 6 hail from 18 nations. Eight of the cardinals come from Europe, five from Latin America, five from Asia, two from Africa and just one from North America — Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto. 

“Their origin expresses the universality of the church, which continues to proclaim God’s merciful love to all people on earth,” the pope said after reciting the Angelus prayer at midday with visitors in St. Peter’s Square.

Creating them cardinals and formally making them part of the Diocese of Rome, he said, “manifests the inseparable bond between the See of Peter and the particular churches spread throughout the world.” 

Within his announcement of the new cardinals, Pope Francis also announced that as of Oct. 6 his new vicar for the Diocese of Rome would be Cardinal-designate Baldassare Reina, a Rome auxiliary bishop who had been serving as vice regent of the diocese, which the Pope head.

Pope Francis included on the list of new cardinals Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, a theologian and former master of the Dominican order, who has been serving as spiritual adviser to the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

Indian Msgr. George Jacob Koovakad, an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State who is responsible for organizing papal trips, was also among those named.

The oldest on the list is Italian Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, 99, a career Vatican diplomat who served in New Zealand, Colombia, Hungary, Moldova and the Netherlands before retiring in 2001.

The youngest is 44-year-old Ukraine-born Bishop Mykola Bychok, who was named head of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia, in 2020.

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