Wednesday, October 17, 2007

RED DAWN: List Leaking... H-Town Rising... Et al.

In a first for the church in the American South, Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston will be a cardinal.

According to a preliminary list circulating around the offices of the Roman Curia in advance of Pope Benedict's formal announcement of a 24 November consistory, others included in the group of Cardinals-designate include Archbishops Sean Brady of Armagh, Jose Lluis Sistach of Barcelona, Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris, and the Baghdad-based Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly of Babylonia of the Chaldeans. Also among those to be elevated is the incoming archbishop of Nairobi John Njue, the head of the Kenyan episcopal conference.

The class will consist of 23 new cardinals -- 18 electors and five over-80 nominees, the latter elevated in particular recognition of their distinguished service.

A widely respected veteran of six years in Rome, where he worked on the staff of the Congregation for Bishops, the Pittsburgh-bred DiNardo is the only resident US prelate cited on the circulating draft.

Texas' cardinal-designate, 58, was named coadjutor-bishop of Sioux City in 1997, becoming diocesan bishop on the retirement of Bishop Lawrence Soens. In 2004, he was transferred to Galveston-Houston, the 1.5 million-member mother diocese of the Lone Star State and the largest local church in the South.

First on the biglietto -- which, per custom, is arranged in order of precedence -- is Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. Just behind him is the (now Pro-free) Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, Cardinal-designate John Foley.

Formalities to come.

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