"I now have the joy of announcing that on 24th November, the day before the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, I will hold a Consistory, in which, departing by one unit from the numerical limit established by Pope Paul VI and confirmed by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in the apostolic constitution "Universi domici gregis", I will appoint 18 cardinals". With these words, at the end of today’s general audience, Benedict XVI announced "live" to the congregation the second Consistory of his papacy, after the one of 24th March 2006. To the new cardinals including, for Italy, the archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian Bishops Conference, mgr. Angelo Bagnasco the Pope added three bishops and two priests who are "particularly deserving" for the way they have served the Church, including His Beatitude the Patriarch Emmanuel Delly. Therefore an overall number of twenty-three new cardinal’s hats. (continued)
