Pope Francis prays at the consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Dec 10, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).
On Dec. 7, in the 10th consistory of his pontificate, Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals. In addition to giving each new cardinal a scarlet zucchetto and biretta, and the traditional cardinalatial ring, the Holy Father assigned to each new cardinal a church of Rome — either a presbyteral title or deaconry — as a sign of the pontiff’s pastoral solicitude over the city and in keeping with the very old custom that cardinals are considered titular or honorary members of the clergy of Rome.
In doing so, Francis also continued a trend of establishing new titular churches — nine this time — from among the more than 900 churches in the Diocese of Rome.
At the time of their official entry into the College of Cardinals, both cardinal priests and cardinal deacons are assigned a titular church in Rome, although the cardinals have no rights of governance over their titular church and may not interfere in its proper administration.
Instead, they may assist their church with counsel, financial support, or some other form of patronage. Cardinals take formal possession of their church after they become cardinals in a consistory, and they might visit their church, hear confessions, say Mass there, and even lead pilgrimages in coordination with the church or parish staff.
There are two types of titular churches (Italian, “titoli cardinalizi”) for cardinals: titles and deaconries. A title (Latin, “titulus,” Italian, “titolo”) is typically assigned to cardinal priests and a deaconry (Latin and Italian, “diaconia”) is assigned to cardinal deacons.
By custom, each cardinal is appointed to a rank within the college: cardinal bishop, cardinal priest, or cardinal deacon. Each cardinal receives a titular church according to the rank he possesses. Cardinal bishops are the most senior members of the college, hold the most important offices in the Roman Curia, or are Eastern patriarchs. With the exception of the patriarchs, cardinal bishops receive the title of one of the suburbicarian sees surrounding Rome.
The largest group of cardinals are those belonging to the second rank — cardinal priests. They are mostly bishops and archbishops who head dioceses and archdioceses all over the world (such as New York, Tokyo, or Madrid) or officials of long service in the Roman Curia who have chosen to be promoted from the ranks of cardinal deacons after 10 years.
Cardinal deacons are primarily officials of the Roman Curia and other priests and bishops who are honored for their service to the Church with elevation to the cardinalate.
If, however, a cardinal deacon moves from the ranks of the cardinal deacons to cardinal priests he will customarily receive a new title appropriate for a cardinal priest or possibly request that his deaconry be elevated to a title for the time he holds it. Should a cardinal priest be elevated to the rank of cardinal bishop, he will customarily receive a title to a suburbicarian see.
With the creation of the 21 new cardinals, Pope Francis assigned each a new title or deaconry. The list of new cardinals and their titular churches is as follows:
-
Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, former nuncio: Ss. Angeli Custodi a Città Giardino (deaconry)
-
Cardinal Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, Peru: S. Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone (title)
-
Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic, CM, of Santiago del Estero, Argentina: S. Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio (title)
-
Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, OFM, of Guayaquil, Ecuador: Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle (title)
-
Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Santiago, Chile: S. Mauro Abate (title)
-
Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, of Tokyo: S. Giovanni Leonardi (title)
-
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan, Philippines: Trasfigurazione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo (title)
-
Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, SVD, of Belgrade, Serbia: S. Maria Stella Maris (title)
-
Cardinal Jaime Spengler, OFM, of Porto Alegre, Brazil: S. Gregorio Magno alla Magliana Nuova (title)
-
Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Ss. Mario e Compagni Martiri (title)
-
Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, of Algiers, Algeria: S. Cuore di Gesù agonizzante a Vitinia (title)
-
Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Conv, of Tehran and Isfahan, Iran: S. Giovanna Antida Thouret (title)
-
Cardinal Roberto Repole of Turin, Italy: Gesù Divino Maestro alla Pineta Sacchetti (title)
-
Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar for the Diocese of Rome: S. Maria Assunta e S. Giuseppe a Primavalle (title)
-
Cardinal Francis Leo of Toronto: S. Maria della Salute a Primavalle (title)
-
Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major: S. Eustachio (deaconry)
-
Cardinal Mykola Bychok, CSSR, Eparch of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians (Ukrainian bishop in Australia) Australia: S. Sofia a Via Boccea (title)
-
Cardinal Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, theologian: Ss. Nomi di Gesù e Maria in via Lata (deaconry)
-
Cardinal Father Fabio Baggio, CS, undersecretary and head of the section for migrants and refugees at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development: S. Filippo Neri in Eurosia (deaconry)
-
Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, organizer of papal trips: Diaconia S. Antonio di Padova a Circonvallazione Appia (deaconry)
-
Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, archbishop of Naples: San Marco in Agro Laurentino (title)
Normally, new cardinals are appointed to titular churches that had fallen vacant either by the death or transfer of the previous holder. At the time of the consistory on Dec. 7, there were 12 vacant titles and nine vacant deaconries. Francis filled seven of the vacant titles and five of the vacant deaconries. The remaining nine were entirely new, constituted on the very day of the consistory by Pope Francis, marking the continuation of a trend of the last years.
It must be remembered, of course, that the pope does not have to assign cardinals to vacant presbyteral titles and deaconries; he is entirely free to institute new ones, and that is what he chose to do again for this consistory.
In the last consistory, for example, in 2023, the pope established seven new titles for cardinal priests: St. Bernadette Soubiros to Cardinal Angel Sixto Rossi, archbishop of Cordoba; Santi Cirillo e Metodio to Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, archbishop of Lodz; Santa Gemma Galgani to Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, archbishop of Juba; Santa Maria in Montesanto to Cardinal Protase Rugambwa, archbishop of Tabora; Santa Maria Causa Nostrae Letitiae to Cardinal Sebastan Francis, bishop of Penang; San Giovanni Battista de La Salle to Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, bishop of Hong Kong; and San Gaetano to Cardinal Diego Rafael Padron Sanchez, archbishop Emeritus of Cumaná.
At the same time, the Holy Father instituted two new deaconries: Santa Monica in Ostia and Sant’Ambrogio della Massima, assigning them to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, respectively.
For his 10th consistory, Francis assigned nine new titles: S. Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone to Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio; S. Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio to Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic; Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle to Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera; S. Mauro Abate to Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib; S. Giovanni Leonardi to Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi; S. Maria Stella Maris to Cardinal Ladislav Nemet; Ss. Mario e Compagni Martiri to Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo; S. Giovanni Antida Thouret to Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu; and S. Maria Assunta e St. Giuseppe a Primavalle to Cardinal Baldassare Reina.
Most of the new titular churches are situated in the suburban municipalities that ring the center of Rome, while Santa Maria Stella Maris is all the way out in Ostia on the coast.
Francis clearly wants his new cardinals to have their churches in every corner of the sprawling Roman diocese.
To drive this point home, only one new title, Santa Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio, is located in the historic center of the Eternal City, and he deliberately left unfilled several very prominent but currently vacant titles, including the truly historic Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, which has been vacant since 2022.
In total, since the beginning of his pontificate and in 10 different consistories Pope Francis has instituted 41 new presbyteral titles and four new diaconal titles. To date, there are 184 existing presbyteral titles and 71 deaconries.
Using AI, the Vatican recently launched a digital “dashboard” of the College of Cardinals. Users can sort the cardinals by age, country of origin, electoral status, and religious order.
[…]
If it leads to greater religious freedom for, and respect for the human rights of, Christians in the Middle East, then the trip can be deemed a success. But sadly I will not hold my breath.
Have you seen the photo of Jorge Bergoglio kissing the infidel, anti-Christ inman while signing a blasphemous joint document with him that proves his complete apostasy?
This document entitled “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Coexistence” contained the following two abominable sentences:
The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives.
These two sentences include at least three heretical teachings:
that pluralism is willed by God, whereas in fact it is diversity that is the consequence of the sin introduced by man into creation, as Sacred Scripture, including Genesis, the account of the Tower of Babel, and the Epistles of St. Paul make clear
that God is the source of error and erroneous beliefs
the Heresy of Ecumenism, introduced by Josef Ratzinger and the Vatican II Anti-council, that “all religions are equally true” and that “we all worship the same god.”
[Some information for this Commentary was contributed by Vatican Information Services.]
No! God did not will a plurality of religions.
Here is what a true Catholic, a true pope teaches:
Never perhaps in the past have we seen, as we see in these our own times, the minds of men so occupied by the desire both of strengthening and of extending to the common welfare of human society that fraternal relationship which binds and unites us together, and which is a consequence of our common origin and nature. For since the nations do not yet fully enjoy the fruits of peace – indeed rather do old and new disagreements in various places break forth into sedition and civic strife – and since on the other hand many disputes which concern the tranquility and prosperity of nations cannot be settled without the active concurrence and help of those who rule the States and promote their interests, it is easily understood, and the more so because none now dispute the unity of the human race, why many desire that the various nations, inspired by this universal kinship, should daily be more closely united one to another.
A similar object is aimed at by some, in those matters which concern the New Law promulgated by Christ our Lord. For since they hold it for certain that men destitute of all religious sense are very rarely to be found, they seem to have founded on that belief a hope that the nations, although they differ among themselves in certain religious matters, will without much difficulty come to agree as brethren in professing certain doctrines, which form as it were a common basis of the spiritual life. For which reason conventions, meetings and addresses are frequently arranged by these persons, at which a large number of listeners are present, and at which all without distinction are invited to join in the discussion, both infidels of every kind, and Christians, even those who have unhappily fallen away from Christ or who with obstinacy and pertinacity deny His divine nature and mission.
Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.
Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion.
Pius XI
Mortalium Animos