Who are the 21 new cardinals appointed by Pope Francis?

These new appointments were eagerly awaited. The new cardinals will join the Sacred College on August 27, which will then become ever more international – Asia becomes the second most represented continent. Pope Francis will have left his mark on the conclave: he will have chosen two thirds of the 132 cardinal electors.

► Five European cardinals

Jean-Marc Aveline, craftsman of dialogue

This is only the second time that Pope Francis has made a French bishop a cardinal. After the Corsican Mgr Dominique Mamberti in 2015, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, now a Marseillais, Mgr Jean-Marc Aveline, at 63, will enter the Sacred College. There is no shortage of points of convergence between the Pope and the Archbishop of Marseille: their pastoral streak, their concern for the poorest and in particular for migrants, their love of the Mediterranean… It is precisely on the subject of the Mare Nostrum that the two men had a long conversation on April 9, 2021. Bishop Aveline had come to Rome to invite the pope to Marseille, as part of the “Mediterranean pilgrimage” initiated by Francis in Lampedusa.

→ PORTRAIT. Mgr Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille, appointed Cardinal by Pope Francis

Since his arrival at the head of the diocese of Marseille in 2019, this native of Sidi Bel Abbès in Algeria has established himself as one of the heavyweights of the French episcopate. Bishop Aveline is a craftsman of interreligious dialogue coupled with a fervent defender of Marseille, « laboratory of coexistence ». Arrived from Algeria at the age of 7, this child from the northern districts – his father was a railway worker there – knows this city inside out, where he was ordained a priest in 1984. “Marseille is more than a city : it’s a message! A message where distress mingles with hope », he wrote on the occasion of Emmanuel Macron’s visit in September, calling for an « awakening of consciences » to fight against violence, poverty and trafficking, evils of which his ministries, presbyteral then episcopal, have made him witness over the years.

Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, the Pope’s confidant

President of the Governorate of Vatican City State since September 2021, Bishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga is one of the members of the pope’s inner circle. Born in Salamanca, Spain, he became, at the age of 77, the first cardinal member of the Legionaries of Christ.

Oscar Cantoni, Field Bishop

Italian theologian and committed to seminarians, Mgr Oscar Cantoni, 71, bishop of Como, is one of those bishops close to the field as Francis likes them. In 2020, he praised Father Roberto Malgesini, a priest in his diocese murdered by a homeless man, praising his dedication to the poorest.

Giorgio Marengo, the cardinal of the steppes

Missionary of the Consolata, Bishop Giorgio Marengo has been Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) since 2020, where he has lived for twenty years. This country of immense steppes has around 1,300 baptized people out of 3.5 million inhabitants. This native of Italy is, at 47, the youngest cardinal of the new college formed by Francis.

Arthur Roche, guardian of the liturgy

At 72, Bishop Arthur Roche has been at the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship since May 2021. This English archbishop was one of the kingpins of Traditionis custodeswhich very strongly limited, in July 2021, the possibility of celebrating Mass in pre-conciliar form.

→ READ. Archbishop Arthur Roche takes over as head of the Congregation for Divine Worship

► Five Asian Cardinals

Virgilio do Carmo da Silva, a first for East Timor

Appointed bishop of Dili (East Timor) in 2016, elevated to the rank of archbishop in 2019, Mgr Virgilio do Carmo da Silva will become, at the age of 54, the first cardinal of East Timor. This former Portuguese colony had been annexed by Indonesia until 2002. The Church had opposed this occupation.

William Goh Seng Chye, face of the young Singaporean Church

The second Singapore-born clergyman to hold the office of archbishop, Bishop Goh becomes, at 64, the first Singaporean cardinal. Appointed in 2015 as a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights, he helped organize the bicentenary of the Catholic Church in Singapore last year.

→ ANALYSIS. The pope creates 21 new cardinals

Filipe Neri Antonio Sebastiao de Rosario Ferrao, Patriarch of the East Indies

Filipe Neri Antonio Sebastiao do Rosario Ferrao, 69, has been Archbishop of Goa and Daman and Patriarch of the East Indies since 2003. This polyglot was elected, in 2019, President of the Conference of Latin Rite Bishops of India (CCBI) at its 31st Plenary Assembly.

Anthony Poola, Archbishop of Hyderabad

Born in 1961 in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Bishop Anthony Poola was ordained a priest in 1992. At the age of 46, in 2008, he was appointed Bishop of Kurnool, in the heart of the Indian continent. In November 2020, Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Hyderabad, in Telangana, a region of India created in 2014.

Lazarus You Heung-sik, peacemaker in Korea

By appointing him in June 2021 as head of the Congregation for the Clergy, Pope Francis had created a surprise. Lazarus You Heung-sik, 70, from Daejeon, is particularly invested in inter-Korean reconciliation. Elected in 2005 as the first president of the Religious Conference for Peace of Daejeon and Chungnam, he met Pope Francis during his visit to Korea in August 2014. A man of the field rather than an apparatus, he is the third Korean cardinal.

► Three South American Cardinals

Paulo Cezar Costa, heavyweight of the Brazilian episcopate

At 54, this native of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) has already taken on a large number of ecclesial responsibilities, within the important diocese of Rio, but also that of Brasilia, of which he has been archbishop since 2020. That same year, he became a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Adalberto Martinez Flores, the voice of Paraguay

Archbishop since February of Asuncion, his hometown, this 70-year-old Paraguyan was ordained a priest by Cardinal O’Malley, now Archbishop of Boston and close to the pope. In 2021, he was elected for a second term as head of the Paraguayan Episcopal Conference.

Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, critic of Brazilian power

This 71-year-old Franciscan is part of the left wing of the powerful National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), of which he was secretary general from 2011 to 2019. Within a Brazilian episcopate divided against Jair Bolsonaro, the he Archbishop of Manaus has co-signed statements critical of his handling of the pandemic in particular.

► Two African cardinals

Richard Baawobr, “taking Africa seriously”

This Ghanaian was the first African elected, in 2010, at the head of the White Fathers. « The time has come to take Africa seriously », he said then. Now bishop of Wa (Ghana), this 62-year-old man sees in a better understanding of the Bible the antidote against the sects which proliferate on the black continent.

Peter Okpaleke, victim of African tribalism

In 2018, Pope Francis reluctantly accepted the resignation of this Nigerian bishop, who had never been accepted by the faithful and the clergy of his diocese of Ahiara for ethnic reasons. Five years after his appointment by Benedict XVI, Bishop Peter Okpaleke, originally from a neighboring region, renounced his role as bishop. By preparing today to create this 59-year-old man a cardinal, the pope is sending a strong signal: tribalism, this « worm that eats away at society », as he called it in 2015 in Nairobi, will not have the last word.

► A North American Cardinal

Robert McElroy, a social voice in the United States

Bishop of San Diego (California), Robert Walter McElroy, 68, passes for a faithful of the papal line in the United States. He had distanced himself from a document from his episcopal conference in 2015, judging that it excluded “poverty and the environment” by focusing too much on abortion and euthanasia. He also considered « ineffective and grotesque » the wall wanted by Donald Trump on the border with Mexico.

► Five cardinals over 80

Among the 21 cardinals whose creation Pope Francis announced on Sunday May 29, five will not be electors of the next pope because they have exceeded the age limit.

Arrigo Miglio, figure of the Social Weeks in Italy

At 80, this former archbishop of Cagliari, in southern Sardinia, was one of the organizers of the Pope’s visit to the region in 2013. President of the scientific council of the Italian Social Weeks, he took a stand at many times in the social sphere, working particularly on the theme of work and social relations.

Gianfranco Ghirlanda, Francis’ jurist

Renowned canonist in Rome, Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, 80, is the only one of the 21 cardinals created by Francis to be neither a bishop nor a prelate. Jesuit, former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, from 2004 to 2010 – before giving way to Frenchman François-Xavier Dumortier – it was he who ensured a large part of the legal supervision of the new constitution of the Curia. In particular, he strongly pleaded with the pope to thus disconnect episcopal ordination and power of government, paving the way for “every faithful” to be able to exercise government power within the Roman Curia.

→ UNDERSTAND. Reform of the Roman Curia: the revolution of Pope Francis

Fortunato Frezza, chaplain of AS Roma

Camerlengo of the chapter of Saint Peter in Rome since 2022, Bishop Fortunato Frezza, 80, has spent much of his life working in Vatican services. First employed at the General Secretariat, from 1983, he was notably appointed Canon of Saint Peter’s Basilica. But he is also the chaplain of AS Roma, one of the two football teams in Rome, which has just won the first edition of the Europa League Conference.

Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, the Latin American religious

Archbishop emeritus of Cartagena, Colombia, this Eudist religious, who is now 80 years old, has had many continental responsibilities in Latin America. After studying in Bogota, the capital, and studying philosophy, he was notably superior of the Eudists in Colombia and secretary of the Latin American Confederation of Religious. Secretary General of the Latin American Episcopal Council (Celam) between 1999 and 2003, he was Archbishop of Cartagena between 2005 and 2021.

Lucas Van Looy, the missionary who became a bishop

A long-time missionary, Bishop Lucas Van Looy, 80, was marked by his training and then his mission in Korea, where his congregation, the Salesians, sent him. After having been an educator, student chaplain, responsible for youth ministry, he was appointed bishop of Ghent (Belgium) in 2003. Functions he held until his retirement in 2019.