Vatican City: Three Asian prelates are among 14 new cardinals Pope Francis announced on May 20 in the Vatican.
Speaking to pilgrims and visitors at noon in St Peter’s Square, the Pope announced he would create new cardinals at a consistory on June 29.
The Asians are Archbishops Joseph Coutts of Karachi, Pakistan, Thomas Aquinas Manyo of Osaka, Japan, and Louis Raphaël I Sako, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon, Iraq.
The Pope noted that the places from which the new cardinals come “express the universality of the Church, which continues to announce the merciful love of God to all men and women on earth.”
The new cardinals also come from Italy, Madagascar, Peru and Portugal.
Pope Francis said their nominations “manifests the unbreakable bond between the See of Peter and the local Churches throughout the world.”
The list also includes Polish Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, who serves as the papal almoner in Rome, and three Italian archbishops, Angelo De Donatis, the vicar general of the Rome diocese, Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Giovanni Becciu, the Substitute of the Secretary of State and Special Delegate for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Other new cardinals are Bishop António dos Santos Marto of Leiria-Fátima, Archbishop Pedro Barreto of Huancayo, Archbishop Desiré Tsarahazana of Toamasina and Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila.
Pope Francis also nominated Emeritus Archbishop Sergio Obeso Rivera of Xalapa, Mexico, Emeritus Bishop Toribio Ticona Porco of Corocoro, Bolivia, and Father Aquilino Bocos Merino of the Claretian order, all of whom, he said, “have distinguished themselves for their service to the Church.”
(Source: Vatican News)