Pope Benedict XVI last week named 23 new cardinals, including U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, and U.S. Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, the first cardinal from a Texas diocese.

The pope announced the names at the end of his weekly general audience Oct. 17 and said he would formally install the cardinals during a special consistory at the Vatican Nov. 24, bringing to 202 the membership in the College of Cardinals. With this latest group of cardinal appointments --- the second of his 30-month papacy --- Pope Benedict has confirmed some important directions and priorities of his pontificate.

First, the pope's picks have once again boosted the European and U.S. presence among voting-age members of the College of Cardinals. Ten of the 18 voting-age cardinal appointees are from Europe, which means that Europeans will constitute approximately 50 percent of the 121 potential conclave voters after the consistory. Of the 30 cardinals Pope Benedict has named to the under-80 group since his election, 16 have been European.

The two Americans will leave the United States with 13 under-80 cardinals, matching a historically high number. Naming 18 cardinals under the age of 80, the age limit set for voting in a papal conclave, Pope Benedict said he was setting aside the limit of 120 potential papal electors established by Pope Paul VI and confirmed by Pope John Paul II.

The pope's choice of Cardinal-designate DiNardo was particularly significant because it went outside the group of U.S. dioceses traditionally headed by cardinals, instead looking to the South, where the Catholic Church has grown most rapidly in recent years. Over the last 20 years, the number of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has increased by nearly 80 percent.

Cardinal-designate DiNardo, 58, will be the first head of a Texas archdiocese to wear the red hat, and he comes with a bonus feature that could enhance his influence --- several years of experience as an official of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops.

Fewer from Latin America
The new cardinals represent 15 countries on five continents. Eight of the new cardinals are current or retired Vatican officials, 13 are current or retired heads of archdioceses around the world and two are former rectors of the main pontifical universities in Rome.

The pope's choices this time included only two residential bishops from Latin America --- one from Brazil and one from Mexico. Brazil, which has the largest Catholic population in the world, will now have four under-80 cardinals; Mexico, which has the second-largest Catholic population, will also have four.

After the Nov. 24 consistory, the global breakdown of voting-age cardinals will be 60 from Europe, 21 from Latin America, 16 from the United States and Canada, 13 from Asia, nine from Africa and two from Oceania.

Seven of the new picks are active officials of the Roman Curia or Vatican-related organizations, including U.S. Cardinal-designate Foley, pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. While there has been much talk about reducing the number of curial cardinals, it appears that Pope Benedict is not going down that road.

Three of the pope's cardinal appointees are in their 50s, including Cardinal-designate DiNardo. Overall, the residential bishops among the new cardinals have an average age of 64 --- which may not sound like the fountain of youth, but is 13 years younger than the average age of current cardinals.

At the same time, Pope Benedict named a record number of five over-80 cardinals, rewarding a Roman Curia veteran, an Argentine pastor and two Roman academics, whom Pope Benedict said he wanted to honor because they were "particularly deserving because of their commitment to the service of the church."

Iraqi Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly, 80, was perhaps the most significant of these appointments. In naming him a cardinal, the pope was showing symbolically his concern for the suffering Catholic population in Iraq, where violence and intimidation have forced tens of thousands of Christians to leave.

The other over-80 cardinals named were Archbishop Giovanni Coppa, a retired Vatican ambassador who will turn 82 Nov. 9; retired Archbishop Estanislao Karlic of Parana, Argentina, 81; Spanish Jesuit Father Urbano Navarrete, former rector of Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, 87; and Italian Franciscan Father Umberto Betti, former rector of Rome's Pontifical Lateran University, 85.

Pope Benedict said he also had planned to name 93-year-old retired Bishop Ignacy Jez of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg, Poland, but "the well-deserving prelate" died unexpectedly Oct. 16, the day before the new cardinals were announced.

Cardinal-designate Foley was in St. Peter's Square when the announcement was made; he told Catholic News Service he had gone into the square, wading into the midst of the crowd, after going to a doctor's appointment.

While rumors were running strong that the pope would name cardinals at the end of the audience and his nomination was almost a given, Cardinal-designate Foley said he was shocked to be the second name announced by the pope. The order in which the cardinals are announced determines their seniority in the College of Cardinals, which has little practical effect except in liturgical processions.

After he had read the 23 names, Pope Benedict told the estimated 30,000 people in St. Peter's Square that the new cardinals "reflect the universality of the church with its multiple ministries. Alongside the prelates deserving for the service they have given to the Holy See there are pastors who devote their energies to direct contact with the faithful."

Like that of Cardinal-designate Foley, the nomination of Cardinal-designate Leonardo Sandri was not a surprise. The Argentina-born prelate, who will celebrate his 64th birthday Nov. 18, is the prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches.

The longtime Vatican official, who served at the Vatican nunciature in the United States from 1989 to 1991, became the voice of Pope John Paul when the pope became too weak to read the full texts of his speeches near the end of his pontificate.

Cardinal-designate Foley, who for 23 years served as president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, will celebrate his 72nd birthday Nov. 11.

A native of Philadelphia, he studied at the Columbia University journalism school and served as editor of The Catholic Standard & Times, Philadelphia archdiocesan newspaper, before Pope John Paul called him to the Vatican to head the social communications office. In June, Pope Benedict named him pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, a chivalric organization dedicated to supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and to responding to the needs of Catholics in the Holy Land.

Known to millions of people as the English-language commentator of papal Christmas midnight Masses, the archbishop said he had tried to merge his love for God and the media.

"In my work as a priest and as an archbishop, I am able to do two things I love very much: to be active in communications and to tell people about Jesus," he said May 6 in a commencement address to students at the University of Portland, Ore.

Cardinal-designate DiNardo, 58, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1977.

After serving for six years in the diocese, he moved to Rome, where he worked in the Congregation for Bishops for six years. While in Rome, he also taught at Gregorian University.

He returned to Pittsburgh in 1991 and was named coadjutor bishop of Sioux City, Iowa, in 1997, becoming head of the diocese a year later. He was named coadjutor of Galveston-Houston in 2004 and became head of the archdiocese in 2006.

---CNS