Blogging Religiously

Since Archbishop Dolan came to New York a year ago, it’s been widely assumed that he would have to wait to become a cardinal.

Cardinal Egan is only 77 and is eligible to enter a conclave to vote for a pope until he turns 80. In general, it is held that the Vatican does not like to have two cardinal-electors representing the same diocese.

So Dolan would have to wait until Egan, the retired archbishop of NY, is 80.

But this is only a guideline, not a rule. And popes can do whatever they want.

Two Rome newspapers are reporting that Benedict XVI will announce in October that a consistory will be held in November and that Dolan will be one of the new cardinals named.

They also say that Archbishop Raymond Burke, the former archbishop of St. Louis who is now serving in a Vatican post, will also get a red hat.

Not named: Archbishop Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C., since 2006.

Here’s the interesting thing: The two Roman newspapers in question, La Stampa and il Giornale, have pretty much the same names. They’re either both right or both wrong.

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