Pope Elevates 22 Cardinals to Help Him ‘Guide the Ship’

Sitting in his golden chair, Pope John Paul II elevated 22 new cardinals Saturday, placing on their heads the red, three-cornered hats that symbolize their role as the “princes” of the church.

The pontiff summoned the men--dressed in crimson cassocks, capes and socks--to lead the Roman Catholic Church into Christianity’s third millennium.

“You are called, along with the other members of the College of Cardinals, to help the pope guide the ship of St. Peter to this historic goal,” the pope told them.

A cardinal’s most important job is electing a new pope, and John Paul’s latest appointments indicated that the 77-year-old pontiff is entrusting the church to men who share his by-the-book orthodoxy.

Among the new cardinals were two Americans: Chicago Archbishop Francis Eugene George and former Denver Archbishop James Francis Stafford, now head of the Vatican’s council on the laity.

With the elevation of George and Stafford, the United States now has a record 11 voting cardinals, second only to Italy’s 23.

As in the past, John Paul’s vision was international in choosing new cardinals. They included one African, at least one Asian, a Canadian, four Latin Americans and 11 Europeans in addition to the new American cardinals.

The identities of two cardinals are secret, most likely for political reasons. Speculation is that they are from China or Vietnam, where the church is suppressed.

The new cardinals range in age and style from Adam Kozlowiecki, 87, a Polish missionary in Africa, to 53-year-old Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna.

Several of the new cardinals are seen as “papabile”--potential popes. Among them are Schoenborn, a highly respected theologian whom John Paul gave the important job of preparing the church’s new catechism, and Dionigi Tettamanzi of Genoa, Italy.