Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday created 22 New Cardinals from around the world at a solemn Consistory in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Among the new princes of the Church is Major Archbishop George Alencherry of Ernakulam-Angamaly of India.

During the consistory, meaning the gathering of Cardinals with the Pope for a specific purpose, created the new cardinals and gave each the cardinal's biretta and the ring and assigned a titular church.

In his homily the Pontiff urged the Cardinals to be united with new and stronger bonds not only to the Roman Pontiff but also to the entire community of the faithful spread throughout the world.

Reflecting on the meaning of authority in the context of the Gospel of Mark, the Pope said that Jesus offered the disciples himself as the model of service and self-giving, when the sons of Zebedee James and John looked for glory. He said that dominion and service, egoism and altruism, possession and gift, self-interest and gratuitousness: these profoundly contrasting approaches confront each other in every age and place.

Jesus chose the practical path indicating to the disciples that the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. With the placing of the red biretta the new Cardinals are entrusted with the service of love: love for God, love for his Church, an absolute and unconditional love for his brothers and sisters, even unto shedding their blood.

Furthermore, the Cardinals are to serve the Church with love and vigour, with the transparency and wisdom of teachers, with the energy and strength of shepherds, with the fidelity and courage of martyrs. Pope Benedict hoped that Christ’s total gift of self on the Cross be for them the foundation, stimulus and strength of a faith operative in charity. Their mission in the Church and the world always be “in Christ” alone, responding to his logic and not that of the world, and may it be illumined by faith and animated by charity which comes to us from the glorious Cross of the Lord.
With the creation of 22 new cardinals on Feb. 18, the number of cardinals worldwide now stands at 213, of whom 125 being under the age of 80, are eligible to vote in an eventual conclave for the election of a new Pope. Eighty-eight cardinals are above the age of 80 and hence are not eligible to vote in a conclave.
Benedict XVI has created 84 cardinals so far in the four consistories since being elected Pontiff in 2005. The current members of the College of Cardinals come from seventy-one states, distributed as follows: Europe 119, North America (U.S.A. and Canada) 21, Latin America 32, Africa 17, Asia 20 and Oceania 4.