Pope expected to name new cardinals today

At his regular weekly public audience today - October 20 - Pope Benedict XVI will announce a consistory and name new members of the College of Cardinals, most journalists at the Vatican are convinced. 

The consistory will take place on November 20, Vatican-watchers agree. 

While the new cardinals will actually receive their red hats on that date, the Pope will reveal their names today. 

Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale, who has accurately predicted several important developments of this pontificate, reports that the Holy Father will name 19 new cardinal-electors. 

There are currently 102 cardinal-electors; since the maximum is 120, there are 18 openings - but that number will rise to 19 on November 15, when Cardinal Janis Pujats, the retired Archbishop of Riga, Latvia, reaches his 80th birthday. 

Along with the new cardinal-electors, the Pope is expected to appoint a few new cardinals who are over the age of 80, and thus ineligible to participate in a papal election. 

According to Tornielli, one of those accorded this honor will be Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci, who directed the Sistine Chapel choir from 1956 to 1997. 

Another possibility is Bishop Elio Sgrecci, the retired president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The list of active archbishops who are generally expected to receive red hats is heavily weighted toward Italian prelates serving in the Roman Curia. 

The Pope’s selections are likely to include: 

 Archbishop Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints;

Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary;

Archbishop Giuseppe Betori of Florence;

Archbishop Raymond Burke, the American head of the Apostolic Signatura;

Archbishop Kurt Koch, the new president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity;

Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich;

Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, the archpriest of the basilica of St. Paul-outside-the Walls;

Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw;

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the newly appointed prefect of the Congregation for Clergy;

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture;

Archbishop Albert Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka;

Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC.

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