pointed 21 new cardinals and three of them are Argentine

Pope Francis made a surprising announcement this Sunday: the creation of 21 new cardinals from September 30. The group will include three Argentines: Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernandez, recently pointed as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Angel Rossi, Archbishop of Cordoba; and the Cuchin friar Luis Pascual Dri.

Fernandez, Rossi and Dri will be part of the group of new cardinals that Francisco will create in his ninth consistory as Pope, and after which Argentina will have seven cardinalsfour with the right to vote in the event of a conclave for being under 80 years of age.

Thus, with the announcement this Sunday, the College of Cardinals will have a total of 243 memberswith 137 empowered to vote in case the election of a new Pope is needed.

“Tucho” Fernandez60, served until June as Archbishop of La Plata and will assume charge of the Vatican body in charge of guarding the doctrine and canonical cases of pedophilia in mid-September after being pointed on July 1.

While, rossia 64-year-old Jesuit, took over the leadership of the Mediterranean archdiocese in December 2021.

And the oldest of the nominees is dry96 years old, who lives in the City, in a sanctuary and convent on the outskirts, in the Pompeya neighborhood.

With this new design, Argentina will now reach seven cardinals, since the new three creations join Mario Poli, Leonardo Sandri, Estanislao Karlic and Hector Villalba.

Of the Argentine cardinals, Fernandez, Rossi, Poli and Sandri They are those who at the moment have the right to vote in a possible conclave for being under 80 years of age.

The other cardinals with the right to vote who were announced this Sunday by the Pope are the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Robert Francis Prevost; the prefect of the Department for Oriental Churches, Claudio Gugerotti; the Apostolic Nuncios Emil Paul Tscherrig and. Christophe Louis Yves Georges Pierre; the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the Archbishop of Ce Town Stephen Brislin.

The Archbishops of Bogota Luis Jose Rueda Aparicio will also be created; from Lodz, Grzegorz Rys; from Juba Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla and from Madrid, Jose Cobo Cano.

Other of the new cardinals are the archbishop quaauditor of Tabora Protase Rugambwa; the Bishop of Penang Sebastian Francis, the Bishop of Hong Kong Stephen Chow Sau-Yan; that of Ajaccio Francois-Xavier Bustillo; the Auxiliary from Lisbon, Americo Manuel Alves Aguiar, and the Rector Major of the Salesians, Angel Fernandez Artime.

In addition to Dri, among those over 80 years of age chosen because “they distinguished themselves in their service to the Church”; according to the Pope, the emeritus archbishop of Cumana, Diego Rafael Padron Sanchez and the Apostolic Nuncio Agostino Marchetto will also be there.

With information from Telam