Pope Francis made a surprise announcement Sunday: the creation of 21 new cardinals since Sept. 30. The group will include three Argentines: Víctor Manuel "Tucho" Fernández, newly appointed as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Ángel Rossi, archbishop of Córdoba; and the Capuchin friar Luis Pascual Dri.
Fernandez, Rossi and Dri will be part of the group of new cardinals that Francis will create in his ninth consistory as pope, and after which Argentina will have seven cardinals, four with the right to vote in case of conclave for being under 80 years old.
Thus, with the announcement of this Sunday, the College of Cardinals will have a total of 243 members, with 137 qualified to vote in case the election of a new Pope is needed.
Victor Manuel 'Tucho' Fernandez was appointed by the Pope as the new Cardinal. Photo: EFE
"Tucho" Fernandez, 60, served until June as archbishop of La Plata and will take charge in mid-September of the Vatican body in charge of safeguarding doctrine and canonical cases of pedophilia after being appointed on July 1.
Rossi, a 64-year-old Jesuit, took over as head of the Mediterranean archdiocese in December 2021.
And the oldest of the nominees is Dri, 96, who lives in the City, in a sanctuary and convent on the outskirts, in the Pompeii neighborhood.
With this new design, Argentina will now reach seven cardinals, since the new three creations are added to Mario Poli, Leonardo Sandri, Estanislao Karlic and Héctor Villalba.
Of the Argentine cardinals, Fernández, Rossi, Poli and Sandri are the ones who for the moment have the right to vote in an eventual conclave because they are under 80 years old.
The other cardinals with voting rights who were announced Sunday by the pope are the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Robert Francis Prevost; the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, Claudio Gugerotti; the Apostolic Nuncios Emil Paul Tscherrig and. Christophe Louis Yves Georges Pierre; the Latin Patriarch of Jerusualén Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin.
The archbishops of Bogotá Luis José Rueda Aparicio will also be created; from Lódz, Grzegorz Rys; Juba Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla and Madrid, José Cobo Cano.
Other new cardinals are Archbishop Cuauditor of Tabora Protase Rugambwa; Penang Bishop Sebastian Francis, Hong Kong Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-Yan; that of Ajaccio François-Xavier Bustillo; the auxiliary of Lisbon Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar and the rector major of the Salesians Ángel Fernández Artime.
In addition to Dri, among those over 80 chosen because they "distinguished themselves in their service to the Church"; According to the Pope, there will also be the archbishop emeritus of Cumaná, Diego Rafael Padrón Sánchez and the Apostolic Nuncio Agostino Marchetto.
With information from Télam