Continuing trend of major young appointments, Pope names new Archbishop of Brussels

June 23, 2023

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Jozef De Kesel, 76, as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and Primate of Belgium, and has named Msgr. Luc Terlinden, 54, as his successor.

Ordained to the priesthood in 1999, Msgr. Terlinden holds several positions in the archdiocese, including vicar general. He has received degrees in economics and moral theology; in 2005, he wrote his doctoral dissertation at the Alphonsian Academy on “the internalization of moral sources from the writings of Charles Taylor and John Henry Newman.” He has chosen Fratelli Tutti, the title of Pope Francis’s third encyclical letter, as his episcopal motto.

Pope Francis’s appointment of a relatively young prelate to a see traditionally governed by a cardinal continues a trend that emerged in January:

• On January 26, Pope Francis appointed Father José Vicente Nácher Tatay, 58, as the new Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras), succeeding Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga.
• On February 11, the Pope appointed Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Frank Leo, 51, as successor to Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto. Bishop Leo was Canada’s youngest Latin-rite bishop and is the founding president of the Canadian Mariological Society.
• On May 26, the Pope appointed Bishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva of Río Gallegos, 55, as successor to Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires.
• On June 12, the Pope appointed Madrid Auxiliary Bishop José Cobo Cano, 57, as successor to Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid.

In addition, on May 5, Coadjutor Archbishop Paul Martin, SM, of Wellington, 56, succeeded Cardinal John Dew as head of the New Zealand archdiocese.

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