Often, the designation of cardinal is reserved to certain important dioceses, but popes sometimes bestow the honor in order to make a broader point. That was likely the case in the decision to elevate at least 2 of the 23 men to the rank of cardinal on November 24.

The archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, in Texas, has not traditionally been awarded a cardinalate. Pope Benedict's decision to elevate Archbishop Daniel DiNardo to the rank of cardinal likely was occasioned by the growth of the Hispanic Catholic population in the United States. While Cardinal DiNardo is an Italian-American, his archdiocese is heavily Hispanic (primarily Mexican-American and non-naturalized Mexicans).

In the case of Emmanuel III Delly, the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI made his reasoning known in his homily at the consistory (the ceremony of elevation). In an English translation of the homily supplied by the Catholic news service ZENIT, the Holy Father spent a full paragraph out of the ten-paragraph homily calling to mind the sufferings of Christians in Iraq:

I now think with affection of the communities entrusted to your care and, in a special way, of those that are most tried by suffering, by challenges and difficulties of different sorts. Among these, how can I not turn my gaze with apprehension and affection, in this moment of joy, to the dear Christian communities of Iraq? These brothers and sisters of ours in the faith are experiencing in their own flesh the dramatic consequences of a long conflict and are living in an ever more fragile and delicate political situation. Calling the patriarch of the Chaldean Church to enter into the College of Cardinals, I intended to express in a concrete way my spiritual nearness and my affection for those populations. We would like, dear and venerable brothers, together to reaffirm the solidarity of the whole Church with the Christians of that beloved land and to invite and to implore from the merciful God, for all peoples involved, the longed-for coming of reconciliation and peace.

Cardinal Delly has been very outspoken in his criticism of the American invasion of Iraq. In this, he has followed Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, who both opposed the war before it began and after it was under way. Pope Benedict's elevation of Patriarch Delly to the rank of cardinal makes it clear that both the Holy Father and the cardinal will continue to call for peace and justice in the war-torn country.

Related Articles:

• Christian Persecution in Iraq Intensifies
• Priest and Three Deacons Martyred in Iraq
• Prophetic Words From Martyred Iraqi Priest
• President Bush Meets With Pope Benedict
• Pope Benedict's Easter 2007 Message
• What Is the Papacy's Response to the War in Iraq?
• The Just War Theory of the Catholic Church