Pope announces 21 new cardinals, including one from the U.S.

This is what I get for sleeping in late on Sunday. While I was snoring away, dreaming of palm trees, the pope was busy making some big news:

“Let us pray for the new Cardinals, so that, confirming their adhesion to Christ, the merciful and faithful High Priest, they might help me in my ministry as Bishop of Rome for the good of the entire Holy People faithful to God.”

With this appeal, the Holy Father announced he would hold a consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals on 30 September 2023 in the Vatican.

The Consistory falls before the beginning of the Synod on Synodality, set to take place with representatives from all over the world in October.

“I would like to announce that next 30 September I will hold a Consistory for the appointment of new Cardinals. Where they come from expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to proclaim the merciful love of God to all people of the earth.”

“In addition,” the Holy Father said, “the insertion of the new Cardinals in the Diocese of Rome, manifests the inseparable bond between the See of Peter and the local Churches spread throughout the world.”

From Crux:

Among those on the list are American Archbishop Robert Prevost, the new prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, a native of Chicago who spent much of his career in Peru, and French Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who since 2016 has served as the Vatican envoy to the United States.

Other names of note on the list, which sticks with Francis’s knack for naming cardinals from all over the world who hold various titles and positions, include several key papal allies.

Among them are Italian Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Eastern Churches; Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, who just days ago was named as the new head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and who will take over that position in mid-September; Jesuit Bishop Stephen Chow of Hong Kong; and Jesuit Archbishop Ángel Sixto Rossi of Córdoba, Argentina.

The list also includes prelates from Italy, South Africa, Colombia, Malaysia, Tanzania, and South Sudan, where he visited earlier this year in a bid to promote peace in the war-torn nation.

The list includes 18 cardinal electors and three non-electors, meaning they are above the age of 80 and therefore not eligible to the conclave to elect the next pope.

CNA adds this for context: