Cardinal News

First, it's amazing the lengths people will go to exonerate Cardinal Bernardin from the abuse scandal.

Second, per Rocco Palma, Pope Francis has come out with the list of folks getting their red hat on at February's consistory:

16 Voting Cardinals-

Archbishop Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State (Italy)

Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops (Italy)

Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Germany)

Archbishop Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy (Italy)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster (Great Britain)

Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano of Managua (Nicaragua)

Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix of Québec (Canada)

Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa of Abidjan (Ivory Coast)

Archbishop Orani João Tempesta, O.Cist. of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Città della Pieve (Italy)

Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung of Seoul (South Korea)

Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello SDB of Santiago de Chile

Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, OMI of Cotabato (Philippines)

Bishop Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes (Haïti)

...and the three cardinals-designate over 80-

Archbishop Loris Francesco Capovilla

Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar, CMF, emeritus of Pamplona (Spain)

Archbishop Kelvin Edward Felix, emeritus of Castries (St Lucia/Dominica)

Several of these aren't much of a surprise (+Muller, +Parolin, +Baldiserri, +Stella). I honestly don't know much about the rest of them. Archbishop Nichols is probably the best-known name from the rest of the list. There isn't a cardinal from the British Isles right now, so you figured that someone would get tapped this time around.

The only other name that drew my attention was Archbishop Andrello due to the fact that he was one of the original prelates charged with the apostolic visitation to the Legion of Christ. Given recent events, his inclusion is interesting.