Catholic World News News Feature

Pope Names 5 More Cardinals; Identifies 2 Named Secretly January 29, 2001

VATICAN, Jan. 29, 01 (CWNews.com) -- In a surprise announcement on Sunday, Pope John Paul II named 5 more prelates to be added to the College of Cardinals, and revealed the identities of 2 cardinals whom he had previously nominated "in pectore."

On January 21, the Holy Father had announced a consistory for February 21, at which he would elevate 37 new cardinals. He promised at the same time that he would "very soon" announce the identity of the two cardinals previously named in pectore. That announcement in fact came sooner than most Vatican-watchers had anticipated it.

The two "in pectore" nominations were Archbishop Marian Jaworski of the Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv, Ukraine; and Archbishop Janis Pujats of Riga, Latvia. These cardinals, who were already elevated to the College "in pectore" in the consistory of February 1998, immediately assume all the privileges of their rank as cardinals.

The other new nominees is Archbishop Lubomyr Husar recently elected by the synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to head the major Archdiocese of Lviv for the Ukrainian rite. The Pope explained that in elevating two Ukrainian cardinals and one from Latvia, he intended to "honor their respective churches, which-- especially during the course of the 20th century-- have been severely tested and offered the world a great example of Christians who bore witness to their faith through sufferings of all kinds, often including the sacrifice of their lives."

The next nomination was a considerable surprise: Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz, Germany. The president of the German bishops' conference, Bishop Lehmann has often found himself at odds with the Vatican, particularly on the troubled question of abortion counseling by Church-related agencies.

A second German was on the Pope's list: Archbishop Johannes Joachim Degenhardt of Paderborn, who is considered more conservative than Bishop Lehmann. The two new German cardinals, and three from Eastern Europe, will give Europe a total of 65 cardinals after the February consistory.

Next the Pope named an African: Archbishop Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa.

Finally the Pontiff named Archbishop Julia Terrazas Sandoval of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Pope John Paul did not explain why these nominations came a week later than the 37 others he had previously announced.

All of the new nominees are under the age of 80, and thus eligible to vote in a papal election. The number of cardinal-electors, after the February 21 consistory, will reach the unprecedented figure of 135. The maximum number of electors had been set at 120, but the Pope has the authority to exceed that number at his discretion.

Except insofar as deaths cut into the membership of the College of Cardinals, the number of cardinal-electors will not drop below 120 until January 2003. Thus there will be no need for another consistory before that time.

Of the 135 electors, 125 have been named to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II; the remaining 10 by Pope Paul VI.