Pope Benedict XVI creates 15 new Cardinals; the College of Cardinals now has 193 members.

(March 24, 2006) : Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, March 24, celebrated his first Ordinary Public Consistory, during which he created 15 new cardinals. Including the newcomers the College of Cardinals now has 193 members of whom 120, those under the age of 80, enjoy the right to participate in a conclave for the election of a new Pope. Europe now has 100 cardinals of whom 60 have the right to vote, while the Americas have 52 cardinals -20 from North America and 32 from South America- with 36 electors. There will be 17 African cardinals with 9 electors, 20 Asian cardinals with 13 electors, and four cardinals from Oceania with 2 electors. Including the three new cardinals, Italy now has 40 cardinals and remains the country with the largest number of cardinals. It is followed by the United States with 15 cardinals, and by France and Spain with nine each.
The names of the new Cardinals are as follow : 1) Monsignor William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. American. 2) Monsignor Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes for Consecrated Life. Slovenian. 3) Monsignor Agostino Vallini, prefect of the Vatican's Supreme Tribunal for the Apostolic Signatura. Italian. 4) Monsignor Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuelan. 5) Monsignor Gaudencio B. Rosales, archbishop of Manila, Philippines. Filippino. 6) Monsignor Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux, France. French. 7) Monsignor Antonio Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Toledo, Spain. Spanish. 8) Monsignor Nicolas Cheong-Jin-Suk, archbishop of Seoul, Korea. South Korean. 9) Monsignor Sean Patrick O'Malley, archbishop of Boston. American. 10) Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland. Polish. 11) Monsignor Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy. Italian. 12) Monsignor Joseph Zen, bishop of Hong Kong. Chinese. The three cardinals who are over 80 are: 13 ) Monsignor Andrea Cordero Lanza Di Montezemolo, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, in Rome. Italian. 14) Monsignor Peter Poreku Dery, archbishop emeritus of Tamale, Ghana. Ghanaian. 15) Rev. Albert Vanhoye, the former Jesuit rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. French.