A glance at B16's 2007 schedule

Get the goods over at Jimmy's. He's talking about this CNS article.

Some highlights from that article:

The pope will make at least two foreign trips, including his first intercontinental journey, and sometime during the year is likely to name another batch of new cardinals. (...By the end of February, he'll have at least 10 vacancies among the 120 cardinal-electors, and by June he'll have at least 14 openings.)

...

The year 2007 will see "ad limina" visits by bishops from places on four continents, including Italy, Ukraine, Slovakia, Portugal, Serbia, Kenya, Togo, Benin, Gabon, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea and Laos.

...

Pope Benedict plans to travel to Brazil in mid-May to open a meeting of the Latin American bishops' council, or CELAM, and to Austria in September for a Marian pilgrimage. The Brazil trip is his first across an ocean, and Vatican planners are doing all they can to keep it short and sweet.

There's also a chance the pope may visit the United Nations. An informal invitation has been floated and the pope is said to be considering it -- the most likely hypothesis would be a visit in late September to address the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

[More on cardinals:] "Candidates for the red hat include heads of major archdioceses like Dublin, Paris, Washington, Toronto and Warsaw, as well as a handful of Vatican officials. But some believe the pope may look particularly to Africa, in an effort for more geographical balance, and to Brazil -- the country with the world's largest Catholic population but with only three cardinal-electors."

It's shaping up to be an exciting year!