The Scarlet Is Served – Pope Reveals 18 New Cardinals
With nary a leak on the timing, at the Noon Angelus on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord Pope Francis unveiled the biglietto of 18 prelates – 15 electors, three "honorary" picks over age 80 – to whom he'll give the red hat at his first Consistory on February 22nd.As expected, the list is topped by four Curialists – with, in a significant shift, the head of the newly-enhanced Synod of Bishops, Cardinal-designate Lorenzo Baldisseri, outranking the prefect of the CDF, Cardinal-designate Gerhard Ludwig Müller – but the big story is the predominance of names not just from well outside Rome, but considerably off the usually-charted path of membership in the papal "Senate," including the first-ever Haitian cardinal and the heads of just two European sees. In another notable feature of the slate, for the first time since the mini-consistory of 1977, no US prelate has made the cut, but that's little surprise – as previously noted, the Stateside church's traditional complement of cardinals is fully topped up, with none of them turning 80 until 2015. For the Italian church, meanwhile, as reports have tipped for days, Papa Bergoglio has touched off an earthquake by passing over the heads of the traditional "cardinalatial sees" of Venice and Turin both, instead elevating Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti, 72 – a figure believed to more accurately reflect Francis' identikit – who the first shepherd of Perugia to be called to the College since the late 19th century.While Francis didn't significantly deviate from the customary maximum of 120 electors – with the new intake, there'll be 121 on Consistory Day – for practical purposes the limit established by Paul VI will remain intact as the disgraced Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien, 75, who resigned as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and vanished into exile amid claims of sexual misconduct on the eve of the March Conclave, is not expected to take part in another papal election should one occur before he ages out.Among the "emeriti" selections over 80, meanwhile, the most-prominent nominee is Archbishop Loris Capovilla, the priest-secretary of Blessed John XXIII, who'll see his former boss canonized by Francis on 27 April and is set to turn 99 in October.
In the order of precedence by which they'll be inducted, here's the list – first, the electors:
Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State (Italy) Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops (Italy) Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Germany) Archbishop Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy (Italy) Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster (Great Britain) Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano of Managua (Nicaragua). Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix of Québec (Canada) Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa of Abidjan (Ivory Coast) Archbishop Orani João Tempesta, O.Cist. of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve (Italy) Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires (Argentina) Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung of Seoul (South Korea) Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello SDB of Santiago de Chile Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, OMI of Cotabato (Philippines). Bishop Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes (Haïti)
...and the three cardinals-designate over 80:
Archbishop Loris Francesco Capovilla Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, CMF, emeritus of Pamplona (Spain) Archbishop Kelvin Edward Felix, emeritus of Castries (Dominica)
More to come, of course.-30-
