THREE Dominicans are set to be elevated to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in December after he announced the appointment of 21 new cardinals last Oct. 6 during his Sunday Angelus at the Vatican.
As cardinals, they are now the highest-ranking prelates after the Pope and will be eligible to vote in a future conclave that chooses Pope Francis’ successor.
The more than 800-year-old Order of the Preachers has produced 79 cardinals since its foundation in 1215.
Here are the three Dominicans to be officially created during a solemn consistory on Dec.7 instead of Dec. 8 as previously announced:
Algiers Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, O.P.
A native of Lyon, France, Vesco joined the Order of the Preachers in 1995 after initially practicing law in his hometown.
Vesco was ordained priest in 2001.
He was appointed bishop of Oran, a city in Algeria, on Dec. 1, 2012. A decade later, Vesco was named archbishop of Algiers.
Prior to being Oran bishop, he was assigned to the Dominican convent of Tlemcen when he arrived at the Diocese of Oran in 2002. By 2005, Vesco was appointed vicar general of the diocese. He became treasurer in 2007.
He was elected prior provincial of the French Dominicans in 2010 and served until his appointment as bishop.
Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo
Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo was born in Montréal, Canada, where he eventually served as its auxiliary bishop in 2022.
Leo was named Archbishop of Toronto a year later.
He joined the Dominican Third Order in 2007 while studying at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome. Leo made a profession in the Priestly Fraternities of St. Dominic, which consists of diocesan priests affiliated with the Order of the Preachers by following St. Dominic’s ministry, in 2008.
Leo was ordained priest in 1996.
The Canadian prelate, with his extensive academic degrees, entered the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See in 2008 where he served in the apostolic nunciature in Australia and in the Holy See’s study mission in Hong Kong.
He also served as secretary general of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2015 and as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of Montreal in 2022.
Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., former master of the Order of Preachers
Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. formerly served as master of the Order of Preachers from 1992 to 2001.
As head of the Dominicans during the time, he was also ex officio grand chancellor of UST.
The London-born prelate entered the Dominican order in 1965 and was ordained priest in 1971.
He served as prior of the Oxford priory in 1982 and eventually headed the Dominicans in England in 1987.
A renowned theologian, Radcliffe won the 2007 Michael Ramsey Prize, a UK-based award for “the best contemporary theological writing throughout the Church,” for his book “What Is the Point of Being A Christian?”
He served as director of the Las Casas Institute of Blackfriars, Oxford, a Dominican institute at the University of Oxford that promotes Catholic Social Teaching, from 2014 to 2015.
In 2015, he was named a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, a now-defunct Vatican department for the promotion of justice, peace, and human rights.
He was chosen to lead the retreats for the participants in the Synod on Synodality in 2023 and 2024.
The three cardinals-elect will join Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula, Vienna Archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and Prague Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Dominik Duka in the current roster of Dominican cardinals.
St. Dominic founded the Dominican Order in 1215 at Toulouse, France, which the Vatican approved a year later.
Missionary Dominicans carrying out the will of Fr. Miguel de Benavides, O.P., the third bishop of Manila, established UST in 1611.
