A new college of cardinals

The Vatican today released a general description of Friday's events, along with a geographic analysis of the makeup of the College of Cardinals after 15 new members are admitted. The United States, home to just six percent of the world's Catholics, is getting two new cardinals, Archbishop O'Malley of Boston and Archbishop Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As a result, the U.S. will have 15 of the 193 cardinals, making it second only to Italy (with 40) in terms of number of cardinals. The developing world continues to be underrepresented, although their numbers have been increasing in the college in recent decades. (Of the 193 cardinals after Friday, 120 will be under age 80, which is the age limit for voting in any conclave upon the death of a pope.)

As for the ceremony, the Vatican confirmed that each of the new cardinals, including O'Malley, will exchange an embrace of peace with each of the existing cardinals, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law. O'Malley, sensitive to Law's status as a lightning rod in Boston, has asked that Bostonians understand that greeting as part of the Catholic ritual, saying "at Mass, we give the peace to everybody around us, and at the ceremony we will follow whatever the ritual is, as a sign of peace."
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