Originally published at National Catholic Register
With the inclusion of Archbishop Battaglia, there will again be 21 new members added to the College of Cardinals at the December consistory.
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 Archbishop 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 a parish priest in another southern Italian archdiocese, Catanzaro-Squillace, where
