Considerations Concerning the Creation of Cool Cardinals Continue

Click here for Update #1, (Monday, Feb. 20)

To anyone interested in following the rumors buzzing around Rome and the blogosphere about the creation of new cardinals (as I clearly am from everything you see in my main title bar + posts like this), Catholic News Services has an excellent summary article.

Some highlights:

"The current rumor is that the pope is preparing to name new cardinals in late February and invest them in late March. Holding a consistory during Lent would be unusual but not without precedent; Pope John XXIII did so twice in the 1960s."

"The appointment of new cardinals is seen as a leading indicator of any papacy, but it's important to remember that, whenever Pope Benedict announces his choices, it will be a list that he has inherited in large part from his predecessor."

...

"-- The mix. If he wanted to, the pope could fill half the cardinal vacancies with Roman Curia officials. But the trend under Pope John Paul was toward more archdiocesan cardinals, and not always from places that were traditional cardinal sees.

People also will be looking carefully at the geographic distribution, to see if Pope Benedict continues his predecessor's wider distribution of red hats in the Third World."

...

"Whenever it happens, Pope Benedict's first consistory will also offer clues about how he intends to use the College of Cardinals during his papacy. Pope John Paul turned to the cardinals several times for advice, convening them in Rome for discussions on such topics as church finances, anti-abortion strategies and pastoral goals for the new millennium.

Given that Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, helped plan and preside over some of these "extraordinary consistories," many expect him to keep up this type of consultation."

Their list of "cardinabili" (the equivalent of "papabili") is as follows:

Almost-for-sure curia members:

• American Archbishop William J. Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
• Slovenian Archbishop Franc Rode, head of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
• Italian Archbishop Agostino Vallini, head of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, the Vatican's highest tribunal.

Less likely curia members:

• German Archbishop Paul Cordes, head of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum
• U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications
• Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, head of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

Acting archbishops around the world:

• Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland (the successor to Cardinal Macharski - whose "classic pose" graces the main photo of this blog)
• Guadencio Rosales of Manila, Philippines
• Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland
• French Archbishops Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris
• Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux
• Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy
• Sean P. O'Malley of Boston
• Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong
• Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi, Vietnam
• Raphael Ndingi Mwana'a Nzeki of Nairobi
• Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain

CWNews also says, "Others occasionally mentioned in the cardinal sweepstakes are archbishops from Monterrey, Mexico; Dakar, Senegal; Brasilia, Brazil; and Barcelona, Spain."

More news as it arrives...