Pope names Tagle, 5 others as new cardinals

Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle, posing for a photo during a break at the Vatican-backed symposium on clerical sex abuse, in Rome in this February 2012 file photo. AP

VATICAN CITY—Pope Benedict XVI has named Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle and five other prelates from Lebanon, Nigeria, Colombia, India and the United States as new cardinals.

Benedict made the surprise announcement during his weekly general audience Wednesday and said they would be elevated at a consistory November 24. The nominations help even out the geographic distribution of cardinals, which had tilted heavily toward Italy.

At 55, Tagle is currently the world’s youngest cardinal.

The pontiff elevated Tagle, head of the Philippines’ largest archdiocese, to the College of Cardinals together with Monsignor James Harvey, the American prefect of the pope’s household; Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan; Archbishop of Bogota, Colombia, Ruben Salazar Gomez; Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites in Lebanon, Bechara Boutros Rai; and the major Archbishop of the Trivandrum of the Siro-Malankaresi in India, Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal.

Tagle is the Philippines’ seventh member of the College of Cardinals whose members will elect Benedict’s successor. The two other living Filipino cardinals are retired Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales of Manila and Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu.

Tagle has been serving as the 32nd archbishop of Manila since last December, succeeding Rosales, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said in a statement.

Born in Manila on June 21, 1957, Tagle took his Philosophy and Theology at the Ateneo de Manila University’s San Jose Major Seminary. In 1982, he was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 25.

He took further studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he earned his doctorate in Sacred Theology from 1985 to 1992.

The CBCP said that since 1997, Tagle has been a member of the International Theological Commission of the Vatican. In 1998, he was an expert at the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Asia that took place in Rome.

“On December 12, 2001, he was ordained Bishop of Imus. Since then, he has been engaged in many activities. He travels throughout the country in answer to many invitations as a speaker,” the statement read.

In 2005, Tagle was elected member of the post-synodal Council and assistant to Cardinal Angelo Scola at the Synod of Bishops held in Rome.

Tagle is currently the chairman of the CBCP’s Commission on Doctrine of the Faith.