John Paul II Appoints 31 New Cardinals

Including One in Secret; Oct. 21 Consistory Scheduled

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VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 28, 2003 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II named 30 new cardinals, including seven officials in the Roman Curia, and announced they would get their red hats at a consistory Oct. 21.

The Pope also announced a 31st cardinal “in pectore” — close to his heart — whose name he is not yet making public.

Nineteen of the cardinals-to-be are archbishops of major episcopal sees. Four are priests whom the Pope is acknowledging for their service to the Church.

Looking better than he has in recent days, but speaking in a weak voice, John Paul II today read the list of future cardinals from the window of his library before praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Among the new cardinals, there are archbishops in the United States (1), Canada (1), Australia (1), Scotland (1), Mexico (1), India (1), Brazil (1), Guatemala (1), Spain (2), Nigeria (1), France (3), Sudan (1), Ghana (1), Croatia (1), Vietnam (1), Hungary (1), Japan (1) and Italy (6).

The four priests are from Switzerland, Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic.

“All together, with the multiplicity of their services, they reflect the universality of the Church,” the Pope explained when making the announcement just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his pontificate.

“Let us entrust the newly elected to the Holy Virgin, invoking her maternal protection on them and their respective tasks in the vineyard of the Lord,” the Holy Father prayed when announcing the consistory, which will take place two days after the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The College of Cardinals currently has 164 members, including 109 who are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave for a new pope.

With the consistory, the number of cardinals eligible to vote would surpass the current limit of 120. In preceding consistories, the Holy Father has already surpassed the limit.

The cardinals-to-be who work in the Roman Curia are:

— Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican secretary for relations with states (home country: France);
— Archbishop Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (Italy);
— Archbishop Francesco Marchisano, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Goods of the Church (Italy);
— Archbishop Julián Herranz of the Prelature of the Opus Dei, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts (Spain);
— Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (Mexico);
— Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers (Japan);
— Archbishop Attilio Nicora, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (Italy).

There are also 19 pastors of as many local Churches. Their names are:

— Archbishop Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice, Italy;
— Archbishop Anthony Olubunmi Okogie of Lagos, Nigeria;
— Archbishop Bernard Panafieu of Marseilles, France;
— Archbishop Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum, Sudan;
— Archbishop Carlos Amigo Vallejo of Seville, Spain;
— Archbishop Justin Francis Rigali of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
— Archbishop Keith Michael Patrick O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland;
— Archbishop Eusebio Oscar Scheid, of Sao Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro;
— Archbishop Ennio Antonelli of Florence, Italy;
— Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa, Italy;
— Archbishop Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana;
— Archbishop Telesphore Placidus Toppo of Ranchi, India;
— Archbishop George Pell of Sydney, Australia;
— Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, Croatia;
— Archbishop Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam;
— Archbishop Rodolfo Quezada Toruño of Guatemala City;
— Archbishop Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France;
— Archbishop Peter Erdö of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary;
— Archbishop Marc Ouellet, of Quebec.

John Paul II also named cardinals four priests who have been outstanding in their service to the Church.

They are Swiss-born Dominican Father Georges Cottier, Papal Household theologian; Monsignor Gustaaf Joos, canon of the Diocese of Gand, Belgium; Jesuit Father Thomas Spidlik of the Czech Republic; and Father Stanislas Nagy, of the priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of Poland.

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