VATICAN CITY – In his first set of major appointments, Pope Benedict XVI named 15 new cardinals, including U.S. Archbishops William J. Levada, head of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, and Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, which will make the U.S. contingent second in size only to the Italians.The pope announced the names at the end of his general audience Feb. 22 and said he would formally install the cardinals at a special consistory March 24.
The pope also convened the entire College of Cardinals for a day of reflection and prayer March 23 and said he would celebrate Mass with the cardinals March 25, the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord.
It will be the first gathering of the College of Cardinals since they elected Pope Benedict last April.
Smiling as he made his announcement, the pope said the new cardinals reflect the universality of the church.
"In fact, they come from every part of the world and carry out diverse duties in service to the people of God," the pope said.
The new cardinals represent 11 countries from five continents. Three are Vatican officials, nine are heads of dioceses or archdioceses around the world, and three are prelates over age 80 being honored for their service to the church.
Of those named, 12 were under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote in a papal conclave. After the installation ceremony, the college is expected to number 193, with the number of voting members once again at its maximum of 120.
The appointment of Archbishop O'Malley, 61, gives the Archdiocese of Boston a resident cardinal after more than three years. Cardinal Bernard F. Law resigned in late 2002 in the wake of controversy over how he handled clerical sex abuse allegations in Boston, and he is now archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. Archbishop O'Malley, a Capuchin Franciscan, has headed the archdiocese since 2003.
Cardinal-designate Levada, 69, was appointed last May as the pope's successor to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He had previously served as archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Ore.
Among the more prominent cardinals-designate were Chinese Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong, 74, and Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, 66, the longtime personal secretary of Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal-designate Dziwisz was a constant presence at the side of Pope John Paul, especially in later years when the ailing pope needed assistance moving, presiding over liturgies and reading texts. Last June, two months after the pope's death, he was named to head his native Archdiocese of Krakow.
He is expected to welcome Pope Benedict to Krakow when the pontiff travels to Poland in late May.
Cardinal-designate Zen, a Salesian, has headed the Diocese of Hong Kong since 2002; he had been coadjutor bishop since 1996. By Chinese standards, he has been considered outspoken in criticizing the Hong Kong and Chinese governments on human rights and religious freedom issues.
Late last year, he spoke of a "breakthrough" in Vatican-Chinese relations after recent agreement on bishops' appointments.
In naming new cardinals, the pope selected several people he had worked with closely over the years, including Archbishop Levada at the doctrinal congregation; two of the congregation's members, Archbishop Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain, and Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, France; and French Jesuit Father Albert Vanhoye, who was a consultor to the doctrinal congregation and secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
Father Vanhoye, 82, was one of three elderly prelates honored by the pope; they would not vote in a conclave because they are over the age of 80. The others were Italian Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, 80, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, who had served as the first papal nuncio to Israel in the 1990s; and retired Ghanaian Archbishop Peter Poreku Dery of Tamale, 87.
The pope said he was naming them cardinals "in consideration of the service they gave to the church with exemplary fidelity and admirable devotion."
The pope made his announcement on the feast of the Chair of Peter, Apostle, and said it was an appropriate moment to reflect on the ties between the world's cardinals and the pope's ministry.
"The cardinals have the task of supporting and helping the successor of Peter in the fulfillment of the apostolic office entrusted to him in the service of the church," he said.
He said the cardinals constitute a type of "senate" around the pope, which he makes use of in his ministry of promoting unity in faith and church communion.
Here is the list of the 15 cardinals-designate, in the order in which they were announced by the pope:
-- Archbishop Levada.
-- Slovenian Archbishop Franc Rode, 71, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
-- Italian Archbishop Agostino Vallini, 65, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican's highest tribunal.
-- Venezuelan Archbishop Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas, 63.
-- Filipino Archbishop Guadencio Rosales of Manila, 73.
-- Archbishop Ricard.
-- Archbishop Canizares.
-- Korean Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-Suk of Seoul, 74.
-- Archbishop O'Malley.
-- Archbishop Dziwisz.
-- Italian Archbishop Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, 67.
-- Bishop Zen.
-- Archbishop Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo.
-- Archbishop Dery.
-- Father Vanhoye.
After the March 24 consistory for the creation of new cardinals, 15 of the 193 members of the College of Cardinals will be from the United States.
Pope Benedict XVI expanded the U.S. contingent in the college Feb. 22 when he announced he would give the red hat to Archbishop William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and former archbishop of San Francisco, and to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston.
After the consistory, the U.S. contingent will be second in size only to the Italians. Of the 15 U.S. cardinals, 13 will be under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.
U.S. Cardinal William W. Baum, former archbishop of Washington and former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court, is the only U.S. cardinal named by Pope Paul VI.
The other U.S. cardinals under age 80 are:
-- Edward M. Egan of New York.
-- Francis E. George of Chicago.
-- William H. Keeler of Baltimore.
-- Bernard F. Law, archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major and retired archbishop of Boston.
-- Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles.
-- Adam J. Maida of Detroit.
-- Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington.
-- Justin Rigali of Philadelphia.
-- J. Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary and former archbishop of Denver.
-- Edmund C. Szoka, president of the commission that governs Vatican City State and former archbishop of Detroit.
The two U.S. cardinals over age 80 are:
-- Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, retired archbishop of Philadelphia.
-- Cardinal Avery Dulles, a Jesuit theologian.
- Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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