Pope names 21 new cardinals

Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals Sunday, significantly increasing the size of the College of Cardinals and further cementing his mark on the group of prelates who will one day elect his successor.

They include a man who will be the oldest cardinal — Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat who was once held hostage for six weeks in Colombia by leftist guerrillas — and the youngest — the 44-year-old head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, Bishop Mykola Bychok, named in a nod to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The new cardinals will get their red hats at a ceremony, known as a consistory, on December 8, an important feast day on its own that officially kicks off the Christmas season in Rome. It will be Francis’ 10th consistory to create new princes of the church and the biggest infusion of voting-age cardinals into the college in Francis’ 11-year pontificate. Acerbi is the only one of the new intake who is over 80 and hence too old to vote for new pope.