After the Angelus on Sunday, October 6, 2024, Pope Francis announced a consistory on December 8 to celebrate the installation of the new cardinals. The list also includes Bishop Mykola Bychok, Eparch of Melbourne of the UGCC (Australia).

“Now I am glad to announce that on December 8, I will hold a consistory on the occasion of the appointment of new cardinals. Their origin expresses the universality of the Church, which never ceases to proclaim God’s merciful love for all people on earth. The inclusion of the new cardinals in the College of Rome also reveals the inseparable bond between the Peter and Paul’s See and the local Churches spread throughout the world,” Pope Francis said before concluding his Sunday meeting with pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on October 6, 2024, for the Angelus prayer.

The Holy Father then announced 21 names of new cardinals:

  1. His Excellency Msgr. Angelo ACERBI, Apostolic Nuncio;
  2. His Excellency Mgr. Carlos Gustavo CASTILLO MATTASOGLIO Archbishop of Lima (Peru)
  3. His Excellency Msgr. Vicente BOKALIC IGLIC C. M., Archbishop of Santiago del Estero (Primate of Argentina);
  4. His Excellency Msgr. Luis Gerardo CABRERA HERRERA, O. F. M., Archbishop of Guayaquil (Ecuador);
  5. His Excellency Msgr. Fernando Natalio CHOMALÍ GARIB Archbishop of Santiago de Chile (Chile);
  6. Archbishop Tarcisio Isao KICKUCHI, S. V. D., Archbishop of Tokyo (Japan);
  7. His Excellency Msgr. Pablo Virgilio SIONGCO DAVID, Bishop of Kalookan (Philippines);
  8. His Excellency Msgr. Ladislav NEMET, S. V. D., Archbishop of Beograd-Smederevo, (Serbia);
  9. His Excellency Msgr. Jaime SPENGLER, O. F. M., Archbishop of Porto Alegre (Brasil);
  10. His Excellency Mgr. Ignace BESSI DOGBO, Archbishop of Abidjan (Ivory Coast);
  11. His Excellency Mgr. Jean-Paul VESCO, O. P., Archbishop of Alger (Algeria);
  12. His Excellency Mgr. Paskalis BRUNO SYUKUR, O. F. M., Bishop of Bogor (Indonesia);
  13. H. E. Msgr. Dominique Joseph MATHIEU, O. F. M. Conv., Archbishop of Tehran Ispahan (Iran);
  14. His Excellency Msgr. Roberto REPOLE, Archbishop of Turin (Italy);
  15. His Excellency Msgr. Baldassare REINA, Auxiliary Bishop of Rome, formerly Vice-gerent and, as of today, Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome;
  16. His Excellency Msgr. Francis LEO, Archbishop of Toronto (Canada);
  17. His Excellency Msgr. Rolandas MAKRICKAS, Archpriest Coadjutor Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major;
  18. His Excellency Mgr Mykola BYCHOK, C. S. R., Bishop of the Eparchy Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians;
  19. Rev. Fr. Timothy Peter Joseph RADCLIFFE, OP, theologian;
  20. Rev. Fr. Fabio BAGGIO, C. S., Under Secretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development;
  21. Mgr George Jacob KOOVAKAD, Official of the Secretary of State, Responsible for Travel.

“Let us pray for the new cardinals so that, affirming their devotion to Christ, the merciful and faithful High Priest, they may help me in my ministry as Bishop of Rome for the good of all God’s holy people,” the Holy Father asked.

A Cardinal from Ternopil

Bishop Mykola Bychok was born on February 13, 1980 in Ternopil.

In July 1997, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, undergoing monastic and theological formation in Ukraine and Poland, and received a license in pastoral theology.

After taking lifelong vows on August 17, 2003, he was ordained a priest on May 3, 2005. As a priest, he performed various pastoral ministries, was the abbot of the Redemptorist Fathers Monastery and a parish in Ivano-Frankivsk, and a provincial economist. Since 2015, he has served at the parish of St. John the Baptist in Newark, USA, of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia of the UGCC.

On January 15, 2020, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had appointed him as the new Eparch of the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne of the UGCC in Australia. The episcopal ordination took place on June 7, 2020, at St. George’s Archdiocesan Cathedral in Lviv. His Beatitude Sviatoslav was the main consecrator, and the co-consecrators were Bishop Ihor Vozniak, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Lviv, and Bishop Petro Loza, Auxiliary Bishop of Sokal-Zhovkva.

It is noteworthy that Bishop Mykola Bychok, at 44 years of age, will become the youngest cardinal.

The UGCC Department for Information