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Texas archbishop is picked to be cardinal

The pope reaches out to Texas' Hispanics.

DALLAS - Texas Catholics celebrated the appointment Wednesday of one of their two archbishops to become the state's first Roman Catholic cardinal.

Daniel N. DiNardo, archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston, was among 23 new cardinals named Wednesday by Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict said he would elevate the prelates at a Vatican ceremony Nov. 24.

"It says something about Texas and how wonderful Texas is in the terms of the growth of our Catholic faith," DiNardo said Wednesday at a news conference in Houston.

DiNardo said the size of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese has doubled in the last 10 years due to immigration from Mexico and Central America, Asia and Africa.

DiNardo's nomination was something of a surprise and appeared to indicate Benedict's desire to reach out to the state's large Hispanic community. Texas has about 6.5-million Roman Catholics. About 1.3-million live in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. DiNardo, 58, who for six years worked at the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, was only named archbishop last year.

"This is a very clear recognition of the growth and importance of the Latino population in the Catholic Church in the United States," said the Rev. Robert Wister, professor of church history at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. "In particular it's a recognition of the Mexican-American presence in the church, of which there is a very large number in the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston,"

Not everyone applauded the appointment.

David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said DiNardo had an "abysmal" record dealing with clergy sex abuse issues while serving as bishop of the Sioux City, Iowa, diocese from 1997 until 2004, and that his record didn't improve in Houston.

"We're disappointed by this choice and believe Catholics should be disappointed, too," he said.

The other American named a cardinal Wednesday was Archbishop John Foley, a longtime Vatican official who was recently named grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

In addition to the Americans, Benedict named the archbishops of Paris; Mumbai, India; Nairobi, Kenya; Valencia, Spain; Barcelona, Spain; Monterrey, Mexico; Dakar, Senegal, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, the primate of Ireland, as well as a handful of Italians.

American cardinals

Two nominations Wednesday brought the number to 17. They are:

1. Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.

2. Archbishop John Foley of Jerusalem.

3. Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York.

4. Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago.

5. Cardinal William Keeler, retired archbishop of Baltimore.

6. Cardinal Bernard Law, archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major.

7. Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

8. Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles.

9. Cardinal Adam Maida, archbishop of Detroit.

10. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington D.C.

11. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston.

12. Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia.

13. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Four cardinals are over age 80 and ineligible to vote in a conclave to elect a future pontiff. They are:

1. Cardinal William Baum, former archbishop of Washington and former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

2. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, retired archbishop of Philadelphia.

3. Cardinal Avery Dulles, Jesuit theologian.

4. Cardinal Edmund Szoka, former governor of Vatican City.

[Last modified October 18, 2007, 01:04:11]