Pope Names 28 Cardinals From 19 Countries

Pope John Paul II named 28 new cardinals--princes of the Roman Catholic church--in a long-awaited list Wednesday that appeared to be aimed at strengthening embattled anti-communist prelates in several key countries.

The archbishops of Managua, Nicaragua, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia--both opponents of the Marxist governments of their countries--were elevated, marking the first time either country has had a representative in the College of Cardinals.

The Rome-based leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, who is an American citizen, also was promoted to cardinal, along with a Czech and two Poles. One of the Poles is an outspoken supporter of the banned Solidarity union.

The new cardinals represent a total of 19 countries.

New U.S. Cardinals

Two U.S. archbishops--John J. O’Connor of New York and Bernard F. Law of Boston--were appointed cardinals, as were five Italians, two each from Canada, France and West Germany, and one each from Austria, Belgium, Chile, India, Holland, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain and Venezuela.

The new cardinals, whose names the pontiff read aloud at his regular Wednesday public audience, will be formally elevated and receive their red hats May 25 in traditional ceremonies at a Vatican consistory. Wednesday’s appointments brought the number of cardinals to 152. The number eligible to vote for a new Pope, if the occasion should arise, rose to the limit of 120 set by Pope Paul VI. Cardinals over the age of 80, of whom there are 32, are ineligible to vote.

During the audience in St. Peter’s Square, the pontiff said that although there are other churchmen who “deserved to be included on the list,” he wished to hold to the limit set by Paul VI.

Noting that the new list includes cardinals from a wide range of countries, John Paul said this reflects the universality of the church and the multiplicity of its ministries.

Many of the prelates who were promoted, such as O’Connor and Law, head major archdioceses traditionally led by cardinals but left without one as the result of deaths or retirement since the last consistory in 1983.

Solidarity Supporter

At least two of the new appointments were known to have been close to the Pope’s heart. One is the archbishop of Wroclaw, Henryk Roman Gulbinowicz, an outspoken opponent of the Communist government of Poland and a strong supporter of the outlawed Solidarity trade union.

The other, also a Pole, is the Pope’s close Vatican friend, Msgr. Andrzej Maria Deskur, whose failing health recently forced his retirement as head of the Vatican Commission for Social Communications.

Another Vatican-based archbishop from a Communist country, Jozef Tomko, a Czech, was appointed by the Pope to lead the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the church’s missionary agency.

Nicaragua’s first cardinal ever will be Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo of Managua, one of the most respected of all opponents of the Marxist-led Sandinista government and one who showed personal bravery in leading a church-sponsored protest march in Managua last year.

The new cardinal of Addis Ababa, a first for Ethiopia, will be Archbishop Paulos Tzadua, whom churchmen described as a conservative and a staunch anti-communist.

The new cardinal of the Ukrainian church will be U.S. Archbishop Myroslav Ivan Lubanchivsky. He served in Philadelphia as head of the Ukrainian Catholics in the United States until he was brought to Rome to succeed Cardinal Joseph Slipyj, who died last September.