Pope Names 21 New Cardinals With Big Impact On Picking Next Pontiff

The surprise move means Francis has picked 112 of 142 voting-age prelates

Pope Francis unexpectedly named 21 new cardinals on Sunday and dramatically increased the number of Catholic officials who will eventually choose his successor.

The new prelates include Monsignor Dominique Joseph Mathieu, the archbishop of Tehran, Iran.

Francis, 87, announced their elevations after addressing the widening conflict in the Middle East, CNN reported.

"I appeal to the international community to end the spiral of revenge and not to repeat attacks, like the one carried out by Iran a few days ago, which can plunge that region into an even bigger war," the pontiff said.

In a nod to Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, Francis also selected Bishop Mykola Bychok, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, the Associated Press said.

At 44, Bychok is the youngest and Monsignor Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat, is the oldest of the new cardinals picked by the pope, AP said.

Others come from South America, Asia and Africa, with only one from North America: Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto.

"Francis has again continued to extend the reach of the college of cardinals," professor Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, told AP in an email. "Like his predecessors, but even more so, he's making sure that Catholic leaders from the church's edges have a voice at the big table."

The pope's surprise move marked the tenth time he has enlarged the College of Cardinals since it elected him in 2013.

It also increased the number of cardinals over 80, the age limit for voting for a new pope, to 142, of whom Francis has named 112, according to AP.

Although the college has a technical limit of 120 voting-age cardinals, popes often exceed that number in anticipation of cardinals aging out of eligibility, AP said.

The new cardinals are scheduled to receive their traditional red skullcaps during a ceremony on Dec. 8, a Catholic feast day that starts the Christmas season in Rome.