Pope Benedict XVI names 15 new cardinals

By Nicholas Rigillo Feb 22, 2006, 19:15 GMT

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday began to place his imprint on the Roman Catholic Church by naming 15 new cardinals, his first set of major appointments since his election 10 months ago.

The cardinals, who are the highest-ranking church dignitaries after the pope, and also act as his sole electors, will be formally installed during a ceremony known as a 'consistory' scheduled for March 24.

The new cardinals include William Joseph Levada, the US archbishop who succeeded the pope as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the closest aide to the late Pope John Paul II.

Speaking in Poland, 66-year-old Dziwisz said he was accepting Benedict's decision with 'humility and love.'

Vatican experts saw Benedict's choice of cardinals as supplying them with the clearest indication yet of the direction in which the German-born pontiff wants to take the Church.

The appointment of Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun, for instance, was seen as confirmation of the pope's desire to reach out to China.

Likewise, the naming of Boston Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was interpreted as providing additional proof that Benedict wants to clean up the Church following a series of sex scandals in the US. O'Malley had been asked by Benedict's predecessor to oversee the Boston diocese after Cardinal Bernard Law resigned over the affair.

Only three of the new so-called 'Princes of the Church' have been picked from the Roman Curia, the Church's 'central government,' suggesting Joseph Ratzinger may be seeking to add fresh blood to his administration.

In general, the new cardinals represent 11 countries from five continents, reflecting what Benedict called 'the universality of the church.'

'They come from every part of the world and carry out diverse duties in service to the people of God,' the pope said as he announced the new cardinals at the end of his traditional mid-week general audience at the Vatican.

Addressing the faithful, Benedict explained that the role of cardinals was to help the pope carry out his job as successor of Peter.

'The cardinals, in fact, constitute around the pope a sort of senate, which he uses to carry out the tasks connected with his ministry,' Benedict said.

The new appointments include three cardinals who are already above the age of 80 and are therefore not eligible to vote in a future conclave. They include an Italian and an archbishop from Ghana.

Benedict said he was making the appointments to supplement the number of cardinal electors. Their limit of 120, set by Pope Paul VI, was regularly exceeded by John Paul II, who created a record 231 cardinals during his 26-year-long pontificate.

The Vatican's official web site sets the number of cardinal electors as of February 7 at 110.

The cardinals were due to be installed next month at a special consistory taking place at the Vatican.

The pope also convened the entire College of Cardinals for a day of reflection and prayer on March 23. It will be the first gathering of such a body since the election on April 19 of Pope Benedict.

The last consistory took place in October 2003, when John Paul II installed 30 new cardinals.

Prior to Wednesday's announcement, Benedict's most important designation had been that of William Joseph Levada, in May 2005, at the helm of the church body entrusted with defending church orthodoxy.