Pope Francis declared Sunday that a consistory would be held Saturday, August 27. During this time, he will create 21 cardinals. Jean-Marc Aveline will be the fifth French cardinal.
After his Sunday prayer from St. Peter’s Square, the pope declared that he would hold a consistory on August 27 to appoint new cardinals. The pope then listed the names of the fortunate ones. Only 16 of the conclave members, who are under 80 years old, will be allowed to vote for a new pope in the event of a conclave.
The college of cardinals will now have five Frenchmen with the appointment of the Archbishop Emeritus of Marseille at 63 years old. The Archbishop Emeritus of Paris Andre Vingt-Trois has been replaced by the Archbishop Emeritus of Bordeaux Jean-Pierre Ricard. Dominique Mamberti is now the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the supreme legal authority of the Vatican.
Jean-Marc Aveline was born in 1958 in Sidi Bel Abbes, then French Algeria. He then moved to Marseille and joined the Avignon seminary. After completing his training at the Carmelite Seminary in Paris, he studied at the Catholic Institute of Paris and received a doctorate of theology in 2000. He was ordained in 1984 as a priest for the diocese of Marseilles. From 1992 to 2002, he focused his training on the Institute of Science and Theology of Religions (ISTR) in Marseille.
He was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop in Marseille in December 2013. He is the President of the Council for Interreligious Relations and New Religious Currents within the Conference of Bishops of France. He was elected Archbishop of Marseille in August 2019 to replace Georges Pontier who had reached 75 years.
