Pope Benedict XVI has created 22 new cardinals

Pope Benedict XVI has created 22 new cardinals, including three members of the Knights of Columbus, during an “ordinary public consistory” at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinals are the Holy Father’s closest advisors, and those under 80 have the responsibility of electing the pope’s successor.

Among those inducted into the Sacred College of Cardinals are two Americans and a Canadian, all of whom are members of the Order: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York; Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem; and Cardinal Thomas C. Collins of Toronto.

Cardinal Dolan is a native of St. Louis and was ordained a priest of that archdiocese in 1976. During the 1990s he served as a secretary at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington and rector of the Pontifical North American College, a U.S. seminary in Rome. Pope John Paul II appointed him an auxiliary bishop of St. Louis in 2001 and a year later named him Archbishop of Milwaukee. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to lead the Archdiocese of New York in 2009. He was elected to the presidency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2010.

Cardinal Dolan joined St. Anthony Council 417 in Washington, D.C., in 1980 while a doctoral student at The Catholic University of America. He is also a member of Charles Carroll Assembly 693 in Manhattan.

Before the consistory, Cardinal Dolan delivered an address on evangelization and missionary activity at a gathering of the cardinals and cardinal-designates for a “Day of Reflection and Prayer.” The cardinal focused on the New Evangelization and the missio ad gentes saying, “The New Evangelization is accomplished with a smile, not a frown. The missio ad gentes is all about a yes to everything decent, good, true, beautiful and noble in the human person. The Church is about a yes!, not a no!”

Cardinal O’Brien was born in New York and ordained a priest for that archdiocese in 1965. He served as a U.S. Army chaplain during the early 1970s and later as both vice-chancellor of the archdiocese and secretary to Cardinals Terence Cooke and John O’Connor. He was rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers (Dunwoodie) from 1985-89 and 1994-97. Between those periods he was rector of the North American College in Rome. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of New York by Pope John Paul II in 1996 and Coadjutor Archbishop for the Military Services U.S.A. in April 1997. He succeeded to that post in August 1997 and served in that role for 10 years until being appointed Archbishop of Baltimore by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. Late last year the Holy Father named him Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

In 1995, the cardinal joined Sisqua Council 1852 in Mount Kisco, N.Y. In 1999, he became a member of Father Nicholas Habets Assembly 1505 in Virginia Beach, V.A.

Cardinal Collins was born in the southwestern Ontario City of Guelph and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Hamilton in 1973. In additional to pastoral duties, he served as a college and seminary professor during his early priesthood, ultimately serving as vice-rector and rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in London Ontario during the 1990s. Pope John Paul II appointed him Coadjutor Bishop of Saint Paul in Alberta in 1997. He succeeded to that post later that year and was made Coadjutor Archbishop of Edmonton in February 1999. He succeeded to that post in June of that year and was appointed Archbishop of Toronto by Pope Benedict XVI in December 2006.

The cardinal joined the Order in 1998 and is a member of Toronto Council 1388 and Cardinal McGuigan Assembly 865 (also in Toronto).