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At the end of the Angelus address on October 6, 2024, Pope Francis announced the convocation of a consistory on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
The Vatican’s publication October 12 of the Pope’s liturgical schedule for the next few weeks showed that in fact, the consistory will be held on the vigil of the feast, on December 7.
In any case, the event will result in the creation of 21 new cardinals, including 20 electors under the age of 80 who may be called upon to elect his successor in the event of a conclave.
Here is the second of three installations of profiles of these men whom Pope Francis chose to ensure his reformist project in the long term.
Here is part one.
One new cardinal for North America
Frank Leo, 53, Archbishop of Toronto, Canada
Born in Montreal in 1971 into a family of Italian immigrants, Francis Leo, known as “Frank,” was ordained for the archdiocese of the Quebec capital in 1996, before joining the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 2006. In 2008, he joined the Vatican diplomatic service and was sent to the Nunciature in Australia, then to the mission in Hong Kong (in charge of relations with China).
In 2012, he returned to Canada to take charge of Montreal’s seminary. From 2015 to 2021, he was secretary of the Canadian Bishops’ Conference. Chosen to be vicar general of Montreal in 2022, he was named auxiliary bishop the same year by Pope Francis. Less than a year later, in 2023, the Pontiff entrusted him with the Archdiocese of Toronto, where he took over from Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins.
Five new “Bergoglian” cardinals for Latin America
Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, 74, archbishop of Lima, Peru
Born in Lima on February 28, 1950, Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio was ordained a priest for the diocese of the Peruvian capital in 1984, after studying at the Gregorian University in Rome. In addition to teaching theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru starting in 1987, he has held numerous positions in youth ministry at both diocesan and national level. He was also pastor of several parishes until his appointment as Archbishop of Lima in 2019 by Pope Francis.
Capital cities are often entrusted to bishops who have already governed another diocese. Consequently, the choice of this simple parish priest was seen as a break with the line of his predecessor, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, who faded from the public scene after handing over the reins of the diocese to him.
The two men had clashed in a controversy over whether to maintain the “pontifical” label for Peru’s Catholic university, as some courses seemed too heterodox in the eyes of the cardinal, who came from Opus Dei. Conversely, Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio was close to Gustavo Gutierrez and liberation theology during his studies in the social sciences in the 1970s. In addition to Spanish, he is fluent in Italian and French.
Vicente Bokalic Iglic, 74, archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina
Born on June 11, 1950, into a family of Slovenian origin, Vicente Bokalic Iglic entered the Lazarist congregation in 1970, and received priestly ordination in 1978. He alternated between parish service and the position of seminary superior within his congregation, for which he also served as provincial superior. In 2010, he became auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, which led to a three-year collaboration with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future pontiff, who appointed him bishop of Santiago del Estero in December 2013.
On July 22, Pope Francis promoted him to the dignity of archbishop, making Santiago del Estero the diocese of the primate of Argentina, in place of Buenos Aires. The Pope’s native country now has four cardinal electors.
Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, 70, archbishop of Guayaquil, Ecuador
Born in 1955, he holds a doctorate in philosophy from Rome’s Antonian University, and was ordained a Franciscan priest in 1983. He held various posts in the field of formation, and was responsible for ecumenical issues within the Ecuadorian bishops’ conference. In 2000, he became minister provincial of his order, and in 2003, assistant to the minister general for the Franciscan provinces of Latin America and the Caribbean.
In 2009, Benedict XVI appointed him archbishop of Cuenca, before Francis transferred him to Guayaquil in September 2015. His promotion to the cardinalate is a morale boost in the context of the city’s deteriorating economic and security situation, since the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of violent gangs, which have caused the number of homicides to increase by 800% between 2018 and 2023.
The choice of Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus of Guayaquil over Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus of Quito may also be seen as a sign of distance from the latter, who hosted the International Eucharistic Congress last month, but has been implicated in financial misdealing. Pope Francis, who visited Ecuador in 2015, did not make a second trip for the event, although it was initially announced by the local authorities.
Fernando Chomalí, 67, archbishop of Santiago, Chile
Archbishop Chomalí, born on March 10, 1957, trained as an engineer before becoming a priest for the Diocese of Santiago de Chile in 1991. This French-speaking man of Palestinian descent trained at the Gregorian University and the John Paul II Institute for the Family. He’s a specialist in bioethics and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. After various teaching and parish priest appointments, he became auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Chile in 2006, then archbishop of Concepción in 2011, working to rebuild this diocese affected by a severe earthquake the previous year.
In 2018, he submitted his resignation to Pope Francis, as did all the Chilean bishops, collectively implicated for their handling of the cases of sexual abuse of minors highlighted during the Pope’s visit. In the end, however, he remained in office. Appearing as a trustworthy man in a country where the episcopal hierarchy has been seriously weakened, he was promoted to Archbishop of Santiago de Chile on October 25, 2023.
He has the onerous task of rebuilding the credibility of the Church in a country which has seen a large part of its population turn away from it since the revelation of numerous abuse scandals, sometimes linked to collusion by part of the Church with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Jaime Spengler, 64, archbishop of Porto Alegre, Brazil
Brazil, which already had six cardinal electors, is further strengthened by the appointment of Archbishop Jaime Spengler. He hails from the Diocese of Santa Catarina, a region in the south of Brazil with many families of German descent, like his own and that of the archbishop of Manaus, Cardinal Leonardo Steiner.
Born on September 6, 1960, Jaime Spengler professed perpetual vows with the Franciscans in 1985 and was ordained a priest in 1990, after studying at the Jerusalem Theological Institute. He also studied philosophy at Rome’s Antonian University.
After various university and parish appointments, notably in the Diocese of Curitiba, he was named auxiliary bishop of Porto Alegre by Benedict XVI in 2010. In September 2013, Pope Francis promoted him to archbishop of this city of 1.3 million inhabitants, the tenth largest in the country.
Since 2023, Archbishop Spengler has presided over both the powerful Brazilian Bishops’ Conference (CNBB) and the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), making him a logical candidate for the cardinalate.
One of the last witnesses to the pontificate of Pius XII
Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, 99, Apostolic Nuncio Emeritus to the Netherlands
In an unusual move, the Pope began the list of new cardinals with the oldest cardinal, almost a hundred years old, who will be the only non-electing cardinal in this new group (over the cut-off age of 80).
Angelo Acerbi, ordained priest in 1948 for the Diocese of Pontremoli, joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1956. His long career, which began under Pius XII, took him to the papal representations in Colombia, Brazil, Japan, France, and Portugal, before Paul VI ordained him archbishop in 1974.
He then became pro-nuncio in New Zealand and apostolic delegate for the Pacific, before John Paul II appointed him apostolic nuncio to Colombia, where he was held hostage for seven weeks by M-19 guerrillas, a movement to which the current president Gustavo Petro belonged.
Archbishop Acerbi went on to become nuncio in Hungary, Moldavia (Moldova) and the Netherlands, and was also prelate of the Order of Malta from 2001 to 2015. His promotion may be seen as a way of thanking him for his loyalty to the difficult reform undertaken by Pope Francis within this organization, which enjoys the status of a sovereign state, but whose links with the Holy See have recently been redefined.
And today we celebrate...