Pope names new cardinals, includes Canadian critical of clerical sex abuse

VATICAN CITY
Globe and Mail (Canada)

Vatican City— The Associated Press

Published Friday, Jan. 06, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins.

Cardinals are the pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict’s successor. Of the 22, 18 are under the age of 80 — raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals over 80 are not allowed to vote on the next pope.

Archbishop Collins, 61, who rose through the church in Ontario and then Alberta before being installed Archbishop of Toronto in 2007, has denounced clerical sexual abuses and the church’s failure to respond adequately to them as “great scandals.”

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