With Red Hats, Pope Ordains 24 New Cardinals

Awarding each of his chosen few a red silk hat, Pope John Paul II crowned two dozen new cardinals Tuesday while simultaneously seeking to blunt the impact of rebellion against the Roman Catholic Church by an archconservative French bishop.

The papal appointments consolidated John Paul’s stamp on the church leadership, as well as its increasingly international character. The 24 new cardinals, from 17 countries, included two Americans, Archbishop James Hickey, 67, of Washington, and Archbishop Edmond Szoka, 60, of Detroit.

A crowd of about 10,000 people from all over the world applauded as each of the new primates knelt before John Paul to receive a papal embrace and the three-cornered red hat that is the cardinal’s symbol of office.

First Schism Since 1870

However, the joy of the occasion was tempered by the prospect of the first major schism within the church since 1870, when a group of European naysayers called the Old Catholics broke with Rome over the question of papal infallibility.

This time, the revolt is being led in the name of tradition by Marcel Lefebvre, a suspended 82-year-old French bishop who refuses to accept the modernization ordered by three different popes since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65.

Despite warnings from the Vatican that it will mean immediate excommunication for those involved, Lefebvre says he will ordain four bishops Thursday in Switzerland without papal permission.

In a private message in Latin to his new cardinals, John Paul said he was saddened by Lefebvre’s decision, “thus taking large numbers of his followers into schism.”

Millions of Supporters

Lefebvre claims millions of supporters in more than a dozen countries. The Vatican says the 250 priests whose loyalty Lefebvre claims serve around 500,000 of the world’s 850 million Catholics.

Apparently convinced that there is no stopping Lefebvre, the Vatican is wooing his followers. “We pray and exhort them that they remain in the paternal home,” the Pope said, “and that they see that it is there where the real truth of faith and correct behavior is found.”

Along with the elevation of churchmen who will one day choose his successor, John Paul announced a long-awaited overhaul of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy. Many of the changes are minor, but one would strengthen oversight at the Vatican’s bank, which has been linked with financial scandals.

Grass-Roots Levels

The reform also pledges greater Curia cooperation with local churches working at grass-roots levels around the world.

“Above all, I wanted to give an image of the Curia which corresponded to the needs of our times, taking into account changes over these last years,” John Paul told the new cardinals.

Vatican analysts say that most of the new cardinals share the Pope’s doctrinal conservatism and his dedication as a hands-on pastor.

Tuesday’s consistory, as the ceremony is called, raises the number of cardinals to a historic high of 160 from 62 countries; 120 of them under the age of 80 are papal electors. In a reign of nearly 10 years, John Paul has now named 85 cardinals, more than half the total.

The new appointments further weaken Europe’s contingent of cardinals, historically the most numerous. If there were to be a conclave tomorrow, there would be 59 European cardinals and 61 from the rest of the world.

Interest in Latin Region

The new appointments also reflect John Paul’s interest in Latin America, where Catholic communities are most numerous, and in Asia and Africa, where Catholicism is relatively limited but growing rapidly.

The cardinals, who like the Pope himself are also bishops, are papal advisers and administrators of Curia departments and large archdioceses around the world. Among the new cardinals named Tuesday were primates for such major cities as Vienna, Montreal, Naples, Sydney, Bogota, Brasilia, Bombay and Hong Kong.

A cardinal-designate, Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Batlhasar, died Sunday at age 83 while preparing to attend Tuesday’s consistory.