At his regular weekly public audience on October 20, Pope Benedict XVI announced his plan to elevate 24 new members to the College of Cardinals.

Confirming the expectations of Vatican journalists, the Holy Father announced that a consistory will be held on November 20. He named 20 prelates who will become voting members of the College of Cardinals. Four others who will receive a red hat in recognition of their long service to the Church, but because they are over the age of 80 they will not be eligible to participate in papal election.

The 20 new cardinal-electors will bring the total number of voting cardinals to 121—one above the normative maximum of 120. However the Pope has the authority to waive that maximum—as Pope John Paul II did in the past. The number will drop back down to 120 by January 2011, when the French Cardinal Bernard Panafieu, the retired Archbishop of Marseilles, turns 80.

The twenty new cardinal-electors will be:

1. Archbishop Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints;

2. Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, the Major Penitentiary;

3. Archbishop Raymond Burke, the American-born prefect of the Apostolic Signatura;

4. Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil;

5. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the president of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See;

6. Archbishop Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity;

7. Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich;

8. Archbishop Medardo Mazombwe, the retired Archbishop of Lusaka, Zaire;

9. Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo;

10. Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, the archpriest of the Roman basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls;

11. Coptic Catholic Patriarch Antonios Naguib of Alexandria, Egypt—the relator general for the current Synod of Bishops for the Middle East;

12. Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw;

13. Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy;

14. Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Italy;

15. Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don of Colombo, Sri Lanka;

16. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture;

17. Archbishop Robert Sarah, the new president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum—the charitable arm of the papacy;

18. Archbishop Paolo Sardi, the pro-patron of the Knights of Malta;

19. Archbishop Raul Vela Chiriboga, the retired Archbishop of Quito, Ecuador; and
20. Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC.

The four prelates who will be raised to the College of Cardinals, but ineligible to vote in a papal election because of age, are:

1. Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci, the longtime director (now retired) of the Sistine Chapel choir;
2. Msgr. Walter Brandmuller, the former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences;
3. Archbishop José Manuel Estepa Llaurens, the former ordinary for the Spanish military forces; and
4. Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, the former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Most of the Pope’s choices were expected, although the names of Archbishops Mazombwe and Vela were not often heard in the speculation prior to the papal announcement. Interestingly, both of these archbishops are already retired—although they remain eligible to take part in a conclave. Cardinal-elect Mazombwe, who is 79, will lose that eligibility next September.

Archbishop Marx will be the youngest of the new cardinals, and the youngest member of the College as a whole. Msgr. Bartolucci, who is 93, will become the 4th-oldest member of the College.

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