Submitted by admin on Sat, 2006-03-25 09:00. ::
Pope Benedict XVI warmly embraced 15 new cardinals when he placed crimson hats on their heads in a ritual-filled ceremony Friday, tears welling in his eyes as he gripped the shoulders of the Polish prelate who faithfully served his predecessor for 40 years.
The moving moment in tribute to Pope John Paul II drew long applause from the crowd in St. Peter's Square as Benedict elevated Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the late pontiff's private secretary, as well as key churchmen from Hong Kong, Boston, Venezuela and the Philippines. They are now members of the elite group who will eventually choose the German pope's successor.
One by one, they walked up to Benedict, who was seated on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, knelt before him and received a "biretta," a four-sided hat with three distinct ridges on its upper side whose crimson color signifies their willingness to shed blood for the church. When the 87-year-old Peter Poreku Dery of Ghana was brought up in a wheelchair, the pope rose from his throne to embrace him.
Archbishop Sean O'Malley, who was brought in to clean up the church in Boston after a major sex abuse scandal, was among the new cardinals, along with William Levada, formerly the archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Ore. Levada took over Benedict's old job as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's chief doctrinal watchdog.
The new cardinals also included Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, a champion of religious freedom in China, Archbishop Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas, Venezuela, who has sought to reduce tensions between the church and President Hugo Chavez, and Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales of Manila, Philippines, the Catholic bastion of Asia.
"The Holy Father loves China and I hope to be of service to him," the Hong Kong cardinal told The Associated Press at a reception for the new "princes" of the church in the frescoed rooms of the Apostolic Palace.
"The church in Venezuela, the bishop conference and me, we are trying to promote dialogue," the Caracas clergyman said. "We hope the actual government may move toward freedom, justice and peace and inclusion of all Venezuelans, without the exclusion of anyone and with an attitude of tolerance."
"I thought of the 2,000 years of history of the church, of St. Peter who gave up his life," said O'Malley. "And now there I was. . . . Who would have thought?"
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