Francis names 13 new cardinals, including Washington’s Archbishop Gregory

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

October 25, 2020

By Joshua J. McElwee

Rome – Pope Francis named 13 new Catholic cardinals Oct. 25, including two Vatican officials; archbishops in Rwanda, the Philippines and Chile; and Washington, D.C. Archbishop Wilton Gregory.

In an unexpected announcement at the end of the pontiff’s traditional Angelus prayer, the pontiff said he would install the new cardinals during a consistory at the Vatican Nov. 28 — setting the stage for an unusual and possibly unprecedented ceremony, held during the midst of a continuing global pandemic.

Gregory, who has served as the archbishop of Washington since May 2019, will be the fourth American cardinal created by Francis, following Chicago’s Blase Cupich, Newark’s Joseph Tobin and Kevin Farrell, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

Five of the other new cardinals named lead global dioceses: Kigali, Rwanda Archbishop Antoine Kambanda; Capiz, Philippines Archbishop Jose Advincula; Santiago, Chile Archbishop Celestino Aos Braco; Brunei Apostolic Vicar Bishop Cornelius Sim; and Siena, Italy Archbishop Augusto Paolo Lojudice.

The two Vatican officials named cardinals were Bishop Mario Grech, the new head of the Vatican’s office for the Synod of Bishops; and Bishop Marcello Semeraro, who has replaced the disgraced Cardinal Angelo Becciu as the head of the Vatican’s sainthood office.

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