New Cardinals

Benedict XVI said:
'The Feast of the Chair of St Peter is a particularly suitable day for announcing that next 24 March I will be holding a Consistory at which I will appoint new Members to the College of Cardinals. It is appropriate to make this announcement on the Feast of the Chair because the task of Cardinals is to sustain and assist the Successor of Peter in carrying out the apostolic office that has been entrusted to him at the service of the Church.
It is not by chance that in ancient ecclesiastical documents the Popes described the College of Cardinals as "pars corporis nostri" (cf. F.X. Wernz, Ius Decretalium, II, n. 459). In fact, the Cardinals form a sort of Senate that surrounds the Pope and of which he avails himself in carrying out the tasks connected with his ministry as the "lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion" (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 18).
With the creation of the new Cardinals, therefore, I intend to bring to 120 the number of Members Electors of the College of Cardinals, as fixed by Pope Paul VI of venerable memory (cf. AAS 65, 1973, p. 163).

The following are the names of the new Cardinals:
1. Archbishop William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;
2. Archbishop Franc Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life;
3. Archbishop Agostino Vallini, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura;
4. Archbishop Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas, Venezuela;
5. Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, the Philippines;
6. Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, France;
7. Archbishop Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain;
8. Archbishop Nicholas Cheong-Jin-suk of Seoul, Korea;
9. Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., of Boston, U.S.A.;
10. Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland;
11. Archbishop Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy;
12. Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B., of Hong Kong, China.

I have also decided to raise to the dignity of Cardinal three ecclesiastics who are older than 80, out of esteem for the services they have rendered to the Church with exemplary faithfulness and admirable dedication.

They are:
1. Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Archpriest of the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls;
2. Archbishop Peter Poreku Dery, Archbishop emeritus of Tamale, Ghana;
3. Fr Albert Vanhoye, S.J., the former praiseworthy Rector of the Pontifical Institute the Biblicum, and Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission: a great exegete.

The Church's universality is clearly reflected in the group of new Cardinals. Indeed, they come from various parts of the world and carry out different offices at the service of the People of God. I ask you to raise to God a special prayer to the Lord, so that he will grant them the necessary graces to carry out their mission generously.
As I said at the outset, I will be holding the announced Consistory next 24 March and the following day, 25 March, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, I will have the joy of presiding at a solemn Concelebration with the new Cardinals. I also invite all the Members of the College of Cardinals to take part; I have in mind to organize a meeting with them for reflection and prayer on the previous day, 23 March.'

Benedict XVI - Pope

"Niedziela" 10/2006

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