The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is in full communion (effectively, in agreement) with the Roman Catholic Church, is headquartered in Kyiv. The nomination of Bychok gave Ukraine its only cardinal and sent a subtle political message as Russia’s war grinds on.
Francis’ decision to appoint new cardinals significantly increases the size of the College of Cardinals and further cements his mark on the group of prelates who will one day elect his successor.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, praised the nomination even though Francis chose the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church in Australia over the Kyiv-based head Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
The group of new cardinals also includes Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat who was once held hostage for six weeks in Colombia by leftist guerrillas.
The new cardinals will get their red hats at a ceremony, known as a consistory, on December 8, an important feast day on its own that officially kicks off the Christmas season in Rome.
It will be Francis’ 10th consistory to create new princes of the church and the biggest infusion of voting-age cardinals into the college in Francis’ 11-year pontificate.
Cardinals in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the funeral mass for Pope Benedict XVI in 2023.Credit: AP
Usually the college has a limit of 120 voting-age cardinals, but popes often exceed the cap temporarily to keep the body robust as existing cardinals age out.
At September 28, there were 122 cardinal-electors; that means the new infusion brings their number up to 142 (Acerbi is the only one of the new intake who is over 80 and hence too old to vote for new pope).
Among those named by history’s first Latin American pope were the heads of several major dioceses and archdioceses in South America.
Showing the universality of the church around the world, Francis tapped the archbishop of Tehran, Iran, Monsignor Dominique Joseph Mathieu, and the bishop of Bogor, Indonesia, Monsignor Paskalis Bruno Syukor. They both belong to the Franciscan religious order and are two of the four new Franciscan cardinals.
Aside from Asia, Africa is the other region where the church is growing and this was reflected in the nomination of two new cardinals: the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Monsignor Ignace Bessi Dogbo, and the bishop of Algiers, Monsignor Jean-Paul Vesco.
“Francis has again continued to extend the reach of the college of cardinals,” said Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in New Jersey. “Like his predecessors, but even more so, he’s making sure that Catholic leaders from the church’s edges have a voice at the big table.”
With AP