On Sunday, Pope Francis announced that he will appoint 21 new cardinals on 30 September. Among these are three prefects of the curial dicasteries (the institutions of the Curia created by Francis himself during his pontificate) and two apostolic nuncios (that is, the ambassadors of the Holy See). Only three of them are over eighty, which means that all the others will participate in the conclave in the event of Francis’ death. Regarding the new cardinals, the pope has said: «Their provenance expresses the universality of the Church which continues to proclaim God’s merciful love to all men on earth».
The new cardinals will be:
Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the dicastery for bishops;
Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the dicastery for the oriental churches;
Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith;
Emil Paul Tscherrig, apostolic nuncio in Italy and San Marino;
Christophe Louis Yves Georges Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States;
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem;
Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa;
Ángel Sixto Rossi, Archbishop of Córdoba, Argentina;
Luis José Rueda Aparicio, arcivescovo of Bogotá, in Colombia;
Grzegorz Rys, archivescovo di Lodz, in Polonia;
Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, archbishop of Juba, in South Sudan;
José Cobo Cano, archbishop of Madrid;
Protase Rugambwa, coadjutor archbishop of Tabora, in Tanzania;
Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang, Malaysia;
Stephen Chow Sau-Yan, bishop of Hong Kong.