VATICAN CITY — Rain poured down on the colonnaded square outside, but inside St. Peter’s Basilica solemnity and good cheer reigned while Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and 23 other men were called to join the College of Cardinals, the most powerful body of the Catholic Church after the pope.
Under the imposing gold and bronze Baroque high altar of the basilica, Pope Benedict XVI placed the three-cornered red cardinal’s hat on the heads of the new “princes of the church” while they pledged their faith to God and Church.
The pope reminded them of their new responsibility, symbolized by the red of their birretta, or hat, and their vestments: to “act with fortitude, even to the point of spilling your blood for the increase of the Christian faith.”
Full story: Wuerl is elevated to cardinal by pope as supporters cheer