Vatican Appoints Head for College of Cardinals

Veteran Vatican diplomat Angelo Sodano has been appointed dean of the College of Cardinals, a key post held by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican said Saturday.

Sodano, a 77-year-old Italian, is also Benedict’s secretary of state, the Vatican’s top diplomat. He has held that position since 1990, under Pope John Paul II.

French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray has been appointed Sodano’s deputy.

The pope plans to give his first Sunday noon blessing from the papal apartment overlooking St. Peter’s Square today, the Vatican said.

Benedict was moving into the apartment Saturday, Vatican Radio said. He broke the seal -- a red ribbon tied around the doorknob -- on April 20, the day after he was elected. But the pope chose to remain at the Vatican hotel where he had been sequestered during the conclave before moving in Saturday.

Vatican Radio said today’s blessing would be particularly emotional for the German pope. It coincides with May Day as well as Orthodox Easter, and will be the first time the faithful will see a figure at the studio window since a “clearly suffering” John Paul tried to bless them a few days before he died.

Also Saturday, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope would meet with Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Vatican on Tuesday, his first formal audience with a head of state since his election.