Italians gain power in papal appointments to College of Cardinals

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan speaks to the media after celebrating mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Friday, Jan 6, 2012, in New York. Cardinal Designate Dolan is one of 22 prelates who will be elevated to cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church in a formal ceremony Feb. 18. (Louis Lanzano, The Associated Press)

The Italians are the big winners in the latest round of papal appointments to the College of Cardinals, says Georgetown University theologian Thomas Reese.

Pope Benedict XVI, with his naming of 22 churchmen Friday, has now appointed more than half of the college's 126 members, the men who will elect his successor.

Since Benedict's election in 2005, when Italian cardinals made up 16.5 percent of the college, the Italian contingent has grown to 24 percent.

Reese and other Vatican-watchers commented that Benedict has reversed the trend begun by Pope Paul VI and continued by Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pontiff in 450 years, to internationalize the college and make it reflect global church demographics.

The church is growing in Asia, Africa and Latin America, while losing numbers in Europe. All of those regions have lost college share ? including Western European countries other than Italy.

The church in North America has held its own in terms of numbers of Catholics and cardinals, Reese said.

Among those to be installed as cardinals next month during Mass at the Vatican are Americans Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, and Edwin O'Brien, archbishop of Baltimore.

However, the U.S. will lose two cardinal-electors this year when Edward Egan and James Francis Stafford turn 80, the age at which cardinals are no longer eligible to vote in a papal conclave. Canada also will break even, Reese said.

Through aging alone, he said, the Italian bloc will further gain in proportion by the end of this year.

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19690731?source=rss

port charlotte florida kit homes boxing day radio shack bethany hamilton bethany hamilton joyful noise