The Installment of the New Cardinals

The Salt Lake Tribune covers the story.

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.

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 - who was replaced in San Francisco by former Salt Lake City Bishop George Niederauer - took over Benedict's old job as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's chief doctrinal watchdog.
Coming from North and South America, Europe and Asia, they showed the worldwide reach of the 1 billion-member Roman Catholic Church.

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.

The new cardinals also included Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, 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.

Leave it to the AP to put in digs against the Church while covering a significant Catholic event. What is it with MSM calling the prefect for the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "the Vatican's chief doctrinal watchdog." Have the prefects taken to wearing studded collars? How many other religious representatives belong to this exclusive canine club?

Reasonable mouth-foaming aside, Victor Simpson provides a fulfilling portrait of Pope Benedict XVI's first consistory. He has called fifteen Archbishops to become his new cardinals. May their service to him be the authentic service of Christ's servants to us all!