Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday officially named Nigeria’s Archbishop John Onaiyekan and five other non-European cardinals to the body that will elect his successor, saying the move underlined the Church’s diversity. The 85-year-old pontiff presided over the ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica that elevated the six prelates to the Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals.
The body “presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church,” he said in a development that has been welcomed by critics concerned that the college has become increasingly Euro-centric under Benedict.