- Title: VARIOUS: Pope Benedict names fifteen new cardinals
- Date: 22nd February 2006
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE)(Korean) NICHOLAS CHEONG JIN-SUK, NEWLY APPOINTED CARDINAL, SAYING: "I was chosen not because of my talents but because of the importance of South Korea's Catholic community in the world."
- Embargoed: 9th March 2006 12:00
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- Topics: Religion
- Reuters ID: LVAAIZI1OH8Q0ZJ9G3PHDXWNU4RK
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- Story Text: Pope Benedict named on Wednesday (February 22) fifteen new cardinals, the red-hatted prelates who are his closest advisers and help him run the Roman Catholic church.
It was the first time Benedict had nominated cardinals since he became Pope last April, allowing him to start putting his stamp on the body of men that he called "a sort of Senate" and that will one day elect his successor.
Benedict announced the nominations at his weekly general audience, saying the ceremony to install the new princes of the Church, known as a consistory, would take place on March 24. The Pope invited all 178 members of the College of Cardinals to attend the consistory -- the first time the cardinals will gather at the Vatican since the death almost one year ago of Pope John Paul and the subsequent election of Benedict.
The new cardinals come from 12 countries: eight from Europe, three from the Americas, three from Asia and one from Africa.
One of the most significant nomination was South Korea's Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk. Cheong will also head the Roman Catholic diocese in the capital of North Korea.
Cheong, the 74-year-old archbishop of Seoul, has served as apostolic administrator of the Pyongyang diocese although a church official said Cheong had yet to visit the officially atheist North.
"I was chosen not because of my talents but because of the importance of South Korea's Catholic community in the world," Cheong said just after being congratulated by Stephen Cardinal Sou-hwan Kim, who was the first cardinal of South Korea, congratulated Cheong.
One of the senior bishops said he believed the pope thought highly of Cheong's work with the Pyongyang diocese.
"I am pretty sure the pope considered North and South Korea as one nation, unifying, reconciliating, and looking towards the future, and appointed Cheong," Most. Reverend Andrew Yeon Soo-Jung, the auxiliary bishop of Seoul, commented.
South Korea has one of the highest percentages of Christians among its population of any country in Asia.
The church official said Cheong's appointment could raise awareness of the plight of Catholics in North Korea, which human rights groups says suppresses religious freedom. South Korea estimates that there are about 3,000 Catholics there.
Born in Seoul, Cheong was educated in Rome and has been archbishop of Seoul since 1998.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the armed truce which halted the fighting in the 1950-1953 Korean War was never followed by a formal peace treaty.
Cheong had also met with stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk before his team was found to have internationally fabricated data in two landmark papers on human embryonic stem cells. Cheong had questioned the ethicality of Hwang's study in using stem cells.
Previously South Korea, with more than 4.5 million Catholics, has had only one cardinal. Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan, 83, has held the position since 1969.
South Korea has one of the highest percentages of Christians among its population of any country in Asia.
Another significant nomination was that of Hong Kong's Bishop Zen, an outspoken critic of China's human rights record who has had a prickly relation with Beijing, which does not allow Chinese Catholics to recognise papal authority.
Among those set to become cardinals were also Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland, who was the long-serving secretary of Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul.
U.S. Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston was also made cardinal apparently in recognition of his work cleaning up after the diocese's priestly sexual abuse scandal that forced his predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law, to resign in 2002.
Another American, Archbishop William Levada, whom the Pope appointed to succeed him as head of the Vatican's powerful doctrinal department, was similarly given the nod.
Among those widely tipped for a red hat but who were not on the list were Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland and Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris, who was bypassed in favour of Bordeaux Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, head of the French Bishops' Conference.
There are two types of cardinal, the non-electors, who are all aged 80 and over, and the younger electors who enter a conclave to chose a new Pope after a papal death.
Church rules set a ceiling of 120 such electors. There are currently 110 electors but two men turn 80 before April.
To make sure the Church has a full complement of cardinal electors, the Pope's list included 12 men aged under 80, with three over the age limit. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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