How Francis’ 20 new cardinal electors change the college 

It was a sign of a Church on the move that Pope Francis wanted to send out when he announced on October 6, 2024, that a consistory would be held to create 21 cardinals, 20 of whom are under 80 years old and would therefore be electors in case of a conclave.

With this new group, Pope Francis continues to shape the college of cardinals, which will count 141 cardinal electors on December 8, the date of the consistory.

I.MEDIA takes a closer look at this 10th group of cardinals created by Francis since his election in 2013. 

Since the beginning of September, Pope Francis has been unusually busy. After a 12-day trip to Southeast Asia and Oceania, followed by a challenging visit to Belgium and Luxembourg, the 87-year-old pontiff didn't wait until the conclusion of the Synod at the end of October to announce the creation of new cardinals.

Pope Francis was not pressed for time, however, as the college of cardinal electors is currently composed of 122 members. This is two more than the theoretical maximum limit set by Paul VI for the college responsible for electing popes. 

With this new entry, the college will now number 141 electors on December 8. Francis will thus have appointed almost 80% of the cardinals in the college, which naturally changes as its members pass away or turn 80, as only those under this age limit are allowed to vote for a future pope. 

As a sign of the movement that the Pope wishes to see in the Catholic Church, nine of the 20 new cardinal electors are currently taking part in the Synod on Synodality.

In fact, Pope Francis has chosen to create as a cardinal Dominican priest Timothy Radcliffe, the Synod’s official preacher. The 79-year-old Briton has made a particularly strong impression on the assembly with his catecheses, exhorting members -- often with humor -- to rid themselves of resistances and narrow-mindedness. 

Emphasizing Pope Francis' warning that the Synod should not become a “parliament,” Father Radcliffe on Monday, for example, urged humorously for people to not see the assembly as made up of “party representatives,” -- such as “that horrible conservative cardinal” or “that frightening feminist!”

With this new group of cardinals, the composition of the college continues to evolve. While Europe is still the largest source of cardinals (30% of this December 8 group), the continent's weight is declining slightly. While more than half the cardinals in the 2013 conclave were from Europe, they will represent just 39% of the college on December 8. 

The representatives from Asia, the continent that Pope Francis visited just a couple of weeks ago, continue to grow. Less than 8% of cardinals in 2013 were from Asia. On December 8, they will make up 16.3% of the college (and 18.4% if one includes the Middle Eastern cardinals).

Francis decided to appoint four new cardinals from Asia, including Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur of Bogor, Indonesia, whom he met during his visit to the country in early September.

The Pope also named a third cardinal elector for the Philippines, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan. The Philippines is the lungs of the Catholic Church in Asia, as it is home to around 90 million Catholics.

On the other hand, although Africa is the continent where Catholicism is growing the most, this has not been fully reflected in terms of cardinal seats. Two new African cardinals - including the Franco-Algerian Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers - were included in this consistory, which took Africa's weight in the college to below 13%.

This lack of representation is also a reminder that Africa has not had a cardinal prefect as a head of a Vatican dicastery for the past two years. 

This consistory was no exception to what has been one of Pope Francis' trademark moves since 2013: giving a cardinal's hat to pastors at the head of small Catholic communities.

In this consistory he announced he will create as a cardinal Dominique Mathieu, Archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where some 2,000 Catholics find it extremely difficult to live out their faith, and can be faced with discrimination or persecution. In creating this 61-year-old Belgian cardinal, the Pope is reinforcing the stature of this Capuchin bishop in a region threatened by war with Israel. 

Over the past 6 years, Pope Francis has already appointed 3 other cardinal electors in the Middle East: Cardinal Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldeans (Baghdad), Cardinal Mario Zenari (Apostolic Nuncio to Syria), and Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. This can be seen as a way of giving a voice to Catholics in these countries, many of whom have fled into exile. 

In the group of new cardinals announced on Sunday, there is also Jean-Paul Vesco, who heads a small community of around 4,000 Catholics in Algiers, Algeria. In 2019 Pope Francis had also created another cardinal in this region: the Spaniard Archbishop of Rabat, Morocco, Cristóbal López Romero. With Vesco’s elevation as well, Pope Francis no doubt wants to encourage these bishops, who are active in interreligious dialogue, particularly with Islam. 

This consistory is also an opportunity for Francis to set the Roman Curia and his Diocese of Rome in motion. He officially named Archbishop Baldassare Reina as his new vicar.

The 54-year-old will govern the Diocese of Rome on behalf of the Pope. One of his many tasks will be to implement the reforms announced by Pope Francis in recent months.

Francis sparked surprise when in his list of new cardinals he announced Father George Jacob Koovakad. This 51-year-old Indian priest has been organizing Pope Francis’ travels for the past 3 years; the cardinal's hat makes some observers assume he will be given more responsibilities soon. 

The same applies to Father Fabio Baggio, 59, under-secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. In charge of the migrants and refugees section, he is responsible for one of the issues that Pope Francis has most at heart. He could be a potential successor to Canadian Jesuit, Cardinal Michael Czerny, who currently heads the dicastery. 

Pope Francis has also chosen to confer the cardinal's hat to Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas (Lithuania), 52, archpriest coadjutor of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major. He was involved in the economic and financial restructuring of the Roman Curia and also led the reform of the Basilica of St. Mary Major’s statutes. It should be noted that it is in this Basilica that Pope Francis wishes to be buried. 

Each consistory sees a rejuvenation of the college of cardinal electors. With this new group, the average age of this college will drop by more than a year (from 71 to 70). The average age of the 20 new electors is 62.

Pope Francis chose to appoint a new youngest member to the college, as Bishop Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne (Australia). At 44, this leader of the Ukrainian diaspora in Oceania takes Cardinal Marengo’s, a 50-year-old missionary in Mongolia, place as the youngest cardinal elector. 

At the other end of the age scale, Pope Francis also appointed a new dean to the college of cardinals. At 99 years old, former papal ambassador Archbishop Angelo Acerbi will certainly not vote in case of a conclave, but he represents within the college the memory of a Church that lived under Pius XII. 

The announcement of a consistory is interesting not only for its content, but also for its absentees. Thus, in keeping with his desire for a Church oriented towards the "peripheries," Francis has still not filled certain episcopal sees that traditionally host a cardinal. These include Milan, Naples, Paris, Lyon, Los Angeles, Berlin, Dakar, Vilnius and Krakow. Moreover, a few days after the Pope's visit to Belgium, where he was welcomed by Archbishop Luc Terlinden, some might have imagined that the young Archbishop of Malines-Brussels would have also received the cardinal's hat. 

In the Roman Curia, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and major organizer of the 2025 Jubilee, could also have been seen as a possible future cardinal. 

As he had done in the past, Pope Francis surprised everyone by elevating three simple priests, not bishops, (Father Fabio Baggio, Father George Jacob Koovakad and Dominican Timothy Radcliffe) to cardinals. It's also worth noting that half the new cardinals come from religious orders.