Pope Francis includes Naples archbishop among new cardinals

Vatican City, Nov 5, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has added the Italian archbishop of Naples, Domenico Battaglia, to the list of new cardinals he will create at a consistory at the Vatican on Dec. 7.

The Vatican said Monday afternoon that Francis had added the Naples archbishop to the list of 20 other new cardinals. The announcement comes almost two weeks after one of the pope’s original picks, announced at the Angelus at the beginning of October, declined the honor of the red hat.

Pope Francis accepted the request of Indonesian Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur, OFM, to not be made a cardinal in order to “continue growing in priestly life and in service to the Church and the people of God,” according to an Oct. 22 message from the Holy See Press Office.

With the inclusion of Battaglia, there will again be 21 new members added to the College of Cardinals at the December consistory.

The 61-year-old Battaglia became archbishop of Naples in December 2020. Prior to the appointment, he was bishop of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti, a diocese in Italy’s southern Campania region, from 2016-2020.

Before that, Battaglia was a parish priest in another southern Italian archdiocese, Catanzaro-Squillace, where he was called “Don Mimmo” and known as a “street priest” who cared for the marginalized.

During his tenure in Naples, the archbishop has spoken out strongly against the violence of organized crime in the southern Italian city.

As archbishop of Naples, Battaglia also celebrates the twice annual Mass in the Naples cathedral at which an ampoule containing the relic of the blood of the third-century martyr St. Januarius is examined to confirm if the miracle of liquefaction has taken place.

Battaglia will be one of five Italian bishops to be made a cardinal at the next consistory; four of the five Italians are under 80 and can participate as cardinal-electors in a future conclave to choose the next pope.

The ceremony to create the new cardinals will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 7.

The following day, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, Francis and the entire College of Cardinals will celebrate a Mass of thanksgiving together in the Vatican basilica.