|
News Items:
|
|
Headlines
|
|
News Briefs
|
|
Stories
|
|
Movies
|
|
Word To Life
|
|
More News:
|
|
Vatican
|
|
Africa
|
|
Special Sections:
|
|
2006 in review
|
|
Inside the Curia
|
|
Archives:
|
|
Vatican II at 40
|
|
John Paul II
|
|
Other Items:
|
|
Client Area
|
|
Links
|
|
Origins
|
|
.
|
|
Did You Know...
|
The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.
Get all the news!
If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250
|
|
.
|
|
Copyright:
|
This material
may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed.
Copyright
(c) 2006
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
|
|
 |
|
CNS Story:
|
CARDINALS-ANALYSIS Oct-17-2007 (530 words) With graphic. xxxi
Ignoring quotas, pope confirms his priorities with new cardinals
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With his latest batch of cardinal appointments, Pope Benedict XVI has confirmed some important directions and priorities of his pontificate.
First, the pope's picks have once again boosted the European and U.S. presence among voting-age members of the College of Cardinals.
The list of 23 new cardinals, announced Oct. 17, included 18 under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave. Two are Americans, which will leave the United States with 13 under-80 cardinals, matching a historically high number.
The pope's choice of Cardinal-designate Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston was particularly significant because it went outside the group of U.S. dioceses traditionally headed by cardinals, instead looking to the South, where the Catholic Church has grown most rapidly in recent years. Over the last 20 years, the number of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has increased by nearly 80 percent.
Cardinal-designate DiNardo, 58, will be the first head of a Texas archdiocese to wear the red hat, and he comes with a bonus feature that could enhance his influence -- several years of experience as an official of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops.
Ten of the 18 voting-age cardinal appointees are from Europe, which means that Europeans will constitute approximately 50 percent of the potential conclave voters. Of the 30 cardinals Pope Benedict has named to the under-80 group since his election, 16 have been European.
The pope's choices this time included only two residential bishops from Latin America -- one from Brazil and one from Mexico. Brazil, which has the largest Catholic population in the world, will now have four under-80 cardinals; Mexico, which has the second-largest Catholic population, will also have four.
All of which goes to show that Pope Benedict does not follow geographical quotas when he makes his cardinal selections.
After the Nov. 24 consistory, the global breakdown of voting-age cardinals will be 60 from Europe, 21 from Latin America, 16 from the United States and Canada, 13 from Asia, nine from Africa and two from Oceania.
Seven of the new picks are active officials of the Roman Curia or Vatican-related organizations, including U.S. Cardinal-designate John P. Foley, pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. While there has been much talk about reducing the number of curial cardinals, it appears that Pope Benedict is not going down that road.
Three of the pope's cardinal appointees are in their 50s, including Cardinal-designate DiNardo. Overall, the residential bishops among the new cardinals have an average age of 64 -- which may not sound like the fountain of youth, but is 13 years younger than the average age of current cardinals.
At the same time, Pope Benedict named a record number of five over-80 cardinals, rewarding a Roman Curia veteran, an Argentine pastor and two Roman academics.
Iraqi Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly, 80, was perhaps the most significant of these appointments. In naming him a cardinal, the pope was showing symbolically his concern for the suffering Catholic population in Iraq, where violence and intimidation have forced tens of thousands of Christians to leave.
END
Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
