Half-dozen cardinals appointed

Published on 25/10/2012 00:00

SIx new cardinals were appointed by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday, the highest office of the Roman Catholic Church next to the papacy itself.

The six came from Lebanon, the Philippines, Nigeria, Colombia, India and the United States.

Among them was Archbishop James Harvey, the American prefect of the papal household whom the Pope also named archpriest of a Roman basilica.

As prefect, Harvey was the direct superior of the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was convicted on 6 October of stealing the Pope’s private papers and leaking them to a ­reporter.

Pope Benedict, 85, announced the new cardinals during his weekly general audience and said they would be formally elevated on 24 November.

The nominations help even out the geographic distribution of cardinals, which had tilted heavily toward Europe in the past few consistories and Italy in particular. There will now be 120 “princes of the church” aged under 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new Pope. Europe still has the most, with a total of 62. Latin America will have 21; North America, 14; Africa, 11; Asia, 11; and Oceania, one.