Indian among six new cardinals Pope will create on 24 Nov

November 23, 2012 - Pope Benedict XVI will create six new cardinals during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Saturday. During the ceremony called the consistory, the Pope will confer the cardinal’s red hat on each of the new cardinals and give them a ring and a bull each. Among the six new cardinals is Indian Major Archbishop Mar Baselios Cleemis of Trivandrum the head of the eastern rite Syro- Malankara Catholic Church based in Kerala state. The other Asians are Filipino Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, and Patriarch Bechara Boutros Raï of Antioch of the Maronites from Lebanon. During the consistory, the Pope will also raise to the rank of cardinal US Archbishop James Michael Harvey, Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Nigerian Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja and Colombian Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota. Known as the princes of the Catholic Church the cardinals have the task of helping the Pope in the administration of the worldwide Catholic Church. Saturday’s event will be the 85-year old German pontiff fifth consistory, with which he will have created 90 cardinals.