2023-07-09 16:22:00
Vatican City, 07/09/2023 (KAP) Pope Francis has announced the appointment of 21 new cardinals for September 30. Among them is the future head of the Vatican’s faith authority, Victor Fernandez. 18 of the 21 new cardinals are pope voters, the Holy Father explained at the Angelus prayer on Sunday. The other three cardinals cannot elect the new pope because they are over 80 years old.
In St. Peter’s Square, the Pope read out the list of new cardinals, which include the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Also significant is the elevation of the Bishop of Hong Kong (China), Stephen Sau-yan Chow, to the Pope’s Senate. Several leaders of the Curia received the purple with him: the Prefects of the Dicastery for Bishops and for the Eastern Churches, Robert Francis Prevost and Claudio Gugerotti.
The fact that the nuncio in the USA, Christophe Louis Yves Georges Pierre, is also admitted to the College of Cardinals alongside the Swiss Tscherrig, nuncio in Italy, is in line with an innovation that Francis introduced when he met Mario Zenari a few years ago , his ambassador in Damascus, raised a nuncio to the rank of cardinal for the first time. However, the changes in the College of Cardinals also strengthen the trend towards the universal church: leading churchmen from South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Argentina, Colombia and Malaysia are among the newly appointed. Some local churches in Europe are also considered, namely Poland, Spain, Portugal and France.
Consistory
The date of the Consistory of September 30 comes immediately before the Plenary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, to be held at the Vatican in October.
The consistory is the assembly of the cardinals present in Rome. It is convened by the Pope, who also presides. The appointment of new wearers of the Cardinal Purple only becomes effective with this General Assembly. During the ceremony, the Pope presents them with their decree of appointment and the red biretta to cover their heads.
The largest consistory in church history was held by John Paul II in 2001, when he simultaneously appointed more than 40 new cardinals. In doing so, he exceeded that of Paul VI. maximum number of 120 voters issued in 1968 – at times under John Paul there were 135 people under the age of 80 who wore the purple. Canon law provides for the assembly of cardinals in two ways: as an ordinary consistory, in which only cardinals living in Rome take part, and as an extraordinary consistory, with the participation of all the cardinals of the Church.
1688922663
#Pope #appoint #cardinals #September #30th
