“On 24 March I will hold a Consistory in which I will nominate the new members of the College of Cardinals”. The announcement was made by Benedict XVI on 22 February, at the end of his Wednesday general audience. There will be fifteen new cardinals: twelve below the age of 80 will enter into the list of the 120 electors (eligible to vote in papal conclaves), to whom are added three ecclesiastics of higher age. Six new cardinals are Europeans: the Slovenian Franc Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; the Italians Agostino Vallini, Prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signatura, and Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna; the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux; the Spaniard Antonio Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Toledo; and the Polish Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow and former secretary of John Paul II. The other new cardinals come from the Philippines, Venezuela, Korea, the USA and Hong Kong. Apart from these, Benedict XVI has decided to elevate to the dignity of cardinal three ecclesiastics above the age of 80, “in consideration he said of the services they have rendered to the Church with exemplary fidelity and admirable dedication”. They are Monsignor Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, arch-priest of the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls; Monsignor Peter Poreku Dery, retired archbishop of Tamale (Ghana); and the Jesuit Albert Vanhoye, former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. The Pope underlined that, in the choice of the candidates from dioceses throughout the world, “the universality of the Church is reflected”.
