Cardinal designate Timothy Dolan (Left) laughs with Cardinal Leonadro Sandri (Second from right) outside the Synod hall at the Vatican, on Feb. 18, 2012 (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
(AP)
VATICAN CITY – A scandal over leaked Vatican documents and reports of political infighting, financial mismanagement and administrative chaos in its frescoed halls have cast a cloud over this weekend’s ceremony to create 22 new cardinals.
With Pope Benedict XVI slowing down as he nears his 85th birthday, Saturday’s ceremony has taken on the aura of a pre-conclave summit. Reports abound in the Italian media of cardinals and their supporters jockeying for prominence ahead of a future papal election, and of a Vatican bureaucracy in disarray as Benedict focuses his waning strength on other matters.
All that has weighed on Saturday’s consistory, where the 22 new princes of the church will get their red hats, or birette, and be formally welcomed into the elite men’s club that will elect Benedict’s successor. That ceremony will bring up to 125 the number of cardinals worldwide eligible to vote for the next pope.
On Friday, cardinals new and old joined Benedict for a pre-consistory day of reflection on spreading the faith in an increasingly secularized world. The meeting was headlined by Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
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