On Oct. 25, Pope Francis made a surprise announcement in Vatican City, naming 13 new cardinals from his studio window after reciting the Angelus. This new wave of cardinals will be installed during the pope’s Nov. 28 consistory, a formal meeting of cardinals where the pontiff can appoint new members to the College of Cardinals.
While the elevation of a priest to the rank of bishop involves a sacramental change since that priest receives episcopal consecration and becomes a successor to the Apostles, there is no sacramental transformation when a bishop becomes a cardinal. However, cardinals under the age of 80 participate in papal conclaves and all cardinals, regardless of their locations around the world, become honorary clergymen of parishes in the Diocese of Rome. Cardinal garments and hats are red to signify the readiness and willingness of these individuals to sacrifice themselves for the faith to the point of martyrdom.
There are four cardinals above the age of 80 in this new group and, thus, will be too old to vote in future conclaves as well as serve on Vatican congregations and councils. These cardinals will still keep active ministerial schedules and engage with their respective bishops’ conferences and Church organizations.
The new appointments include current Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., the first African-American to be elevated to the position. Archbishop Gregory, who served as the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops three times, said he was “surprised,” but “certainly deeply grateful” about his elevation.
“I am reaping a harvest that millions of African American Catholics and people of color have planted,” Archbishop Gregory said after the announcement in an interview with the Catholic Standard. “I am deeply grateful for the faith that they have lived so generously, so zealously and with such great devotion.”
The pope’s future cardinals, coming from the Philippines, Rwanda, and Chile, among other nations, reflect the global outreach of the Catholic Church in a way Pope Francis has pursued since his ascension to the papacy.
These nine future cardinals are able to vote in papal conclaves:
- Monsignor Mario Grech (Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops)
- Monsignor Marcello Semeraro (Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints)
- Monsignor Antoine Kambanda (Archbishop of Kigali, Rwanda)
- Monsignor Wilton Gregory (Archbishop of Washington D.C., United States of America)
- Monsignor José Advincula (Archbishop of Capiz, Philippines)
- Monsignor Celestino Aos, O.F.M. Cap. (Archbishop of Santiago de Chile)
- Monsignor Cornelius Sim (Apostolic Vicar of Brunei)
- Monsignor Augusto Lojudice (Archbishop of Siena, Italy)
- Friar Mauro Gambetti, O.F.M. Conv. (Guardian of the Sacred Convent of Assisi)
These future cardinals over 80 are unable to vote in any papal conclaves:
- Fr. Raniero Cantalamess, O.F.M. Cap. (Italian Franciscan friar and Preacher to the Papal Household at the Vatican)
- Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, C.S. (Special Delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta)
- Fr. Enrico Feroci (former president of the Caritas Roma Foundation)
- Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel (retired Bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico)
Grant is a senior studying Information Systems at the Carroll School of Management. He keeps busy by studying and writing for The Torch.
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