Bishop Stephen Chow SJ, the Bishop of Hong Kong, has been appointed as one of the 21 new cardinals by Pope Francis. The Pontiff made the announcement on 9 July during his Sunday Angelus.
Alongside Bishop Chow, another Jesuit, Archbishop Ángel Sixto Rossi SJ, Archbishop of Córdoba, as well as Monsignor Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Vatican’s top official in the Middle East, have also been named as new cardinals.
The remaining new cardinals are: Archbishop Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town; Archbishop Luis José Rueda Aparicio, Archbishop of Bogotá; Archbishop Grzegorz Rys, Archbishop of Łódź; Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, Archbishop of Juba; Archbishop José Cobo Cano, Archbishop of Madrid; Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, Coadjutor Archbishop of Tabora; Bishop Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang; Bishop François-Xavier Bustillo, Bishop of Ajaccio; and Bishop Américo Manuel Alves Aguiar, Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon.
The official installation ceremony for the new cardinals will take place on 30 September. It is worth noting that earlier this year, Bishop Chow became the first prelate in his post to visit mainland China in almost three decades.
The appointment of these 21 cardinals will bring the total number of cardinals in the College to 243, with 32 cardinals coming from Asia, 27 from Africa, 27 from North America, 29 from South America, and 115 from Europe.