Vatican Has Red Hat Sale!

Well, "Red Hat Giveaway" might be more accurate. (Slightly.)

What I’m saying is this: The pope named a buncha new cardinals yesterday–twelve of them under voting age for the next pope, and three more over it.

It came as no surprise that Archbishop William Levada (formerly of San Francisco, now head of the CDF) got a red hat. His new job is a red hat job.

Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston also got one.

John Paul II’s former personal secretary–now Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwitsz of Krakow–also did.

In making his selections, B16 continued the global diversification of the college of cardinals. Only 2 of the 12 new voting age cardinals were Italian.

B16 has also called ALL of the cardinals to Rome next month for a meeting of prayer and reflection the day before the consistory in which he installs the new cardinals.

This is a new thing. It certainly makes sense, though, and it will be interesting to see if it sticks with future popes (and future such events by this pope).

GET THE STORY.

MORE.

GET PICTURES OF THE NEW GUYS.

GET THE TEA LEAVES ON THE NEW GUYS.

FULL LIST OF CARDINALS.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

9 thoughts on “Vatican Has Red Hat Sale!”

  1. One benefit of listening to the audiobook version of George Weigel’s Witness to Hope is that I can hear all those Polish names pronounced. Assuming the reader is correct, “Dziwitsz” is pronounced “JEE-vish.”
    The More You Know.

  2. Oh happy day! My archbishop is a cardinal!
    I read this post just after a rehearsal wherein a joke was made about same-sex marriage (living in MA, it’s a common thing: “Well, this is Massachusetts…” – usually accompanied by rolling eyes) and my thought at that moment had been something along the lines of “Gaaaaaah! My state!”
    But after this post, the new and much more pleasant thought is, “Ahhhhhh, my Church!”
    Danke for the news.

  3. Red hats are fine; I’ll even tolerate purple dresses; but when they start taking over restaurants and reciting bad poetry about how great it is to be old, I have to draw a line.
    PVO

  4. Frankly, I think we’d do better if there really was a “red hat sale.” These choices were purely horrendous. There’s absolutely nothing “eminent” about either of the American picks.

  5. Cardinal Mahony uses his red hat for sales. The cafeteria that is a part of the “cathedral plaza” he built is named “Galero”–the Italian name for a cardinal’s hat.

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