2010 consistory watch
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 18, 2009
Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the retired Archbishop of Warsaw and Primate of Poland, celebrated his 80th birthday today, and thus became ineligible to participate in a future papal election.
As I have mentioned here before, the time seems ripe for Pope Benedict to convene a consistory and elevate new members to the College of Cardinals sometime in 2010. The last such consistory was in November 2007, and there are now several prelates-- prominent among them, America's own Archbishop Raymond Burke-- occupying positions that normally call for a red hat.
With Cardinal Glemp dropping from the list of cardinal-electors, there are now 112 cardinals eligible to take part in a papal conclave. The statutory limit is 120, so there's room for more. By the end of March 2010, four more cardinals will celebrate their 80th birthdays, creating new openings. By next September the number of cardinal-electors will be down to 103-- even assuming that there are no deaths among the eligible cardinals.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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