Pope Francis enlarges college of cardinals with 21 new appointments
Prelates to receive red hats at December consistory in largest intake of electors during pontiff’s 11-year tenure
Pope Francis has named 21 new cardinals, significantly increasing the size of the college of cardinals and extending his mark on the group of prelates who will one day elect his successor.
They include a man who will be the oldest cardinal – Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat who was once held hostage for six weeks in Colombia by leftist guerrillas – and the youngest: Bishop Mykola Bychok, the 44-year-old head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Melbourne, Australia, who was named in a nod to the war in Ukraine.