Cardinals Clergy

A court in Los Angeles has no legal right to try Mexico's most prominent cardinal in connection with alleged child molestation and rape by a Mexican priest, the cardinal's lawyer said Sunday. Bernardo Fernandez, who represents Cardinal Norberto Rivera, said only a Mexican court has the authority to rule on the lawsuit.

The archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, was hospitalized with a slight hip fracture Saturday morning after he apparently slipped and fell inside a church while blessing Easter baskets, archdiocese officials said. George, 70, was at St. Ferdinand Roman Catholic Church to bless baskets of food for Easter meals when he slipped on some holy water that had splashed onto the marble floor, said Colleen Dolan, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

Mexico's most prominent cardinal was deposed Wednesday in a U.S. lawsuit accusing him of complicity in the alleged rape of a child by a Mexican priest. Cardinal Norberto Rivera and his lawyers rushed past reporters and photographers waiting outside archdiocese offices in Mexico City without speaking. Later, archdiocese spokesman Rev. Hugo Valdemar Romero said Rivera gave his statement voluntarily.

Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday named 23 new Roman Catholic cardinals, beefing up the group that is expected to eventually choose his successor. The new "princes" of the Catholic Church, as cardinals are called, come from the United States, Europe and three other continents, reflecting what the pope said was the universality of the church "and the multiplicity of its missions."

Pope Benedict XVI elevated 23 clerics from across the world to the top ranks of the Roman Catholic Church, including the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, whom he welcomed by saying he was praying for peace in Iraq. Benedict placed a red hat on the head of each cardinal as they knelt in turn during the ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica. Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly, 80, said he was "very moved" by the pope's words.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told a recent gathering of priests that he was assaulted last summer by a man enraged about the Roman Catholic Church's clergy abuse scandal, according to several sources familiar with the discussion. Mahony, 71, told priests attending the Los Angeles Archdiocese's annual pastoral meeting in October that he had been knocked down and badly bruised in July, near the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused a Roman Catholic cardinal of conspiring against him after the clergyman chastised the leftist leader, alleging he was eroding democracy and abusing his power. The exchange was the latest sign of tense relations between the country's Catholic hierarchy and Chavez, who has pledged a socialist revolution in the nation, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. "This is part of a provocation, part of a conspiracy; there is nothing innocent about this.

Pope Benedict XVI named his first group of cardinals Wednesday, including an outspoken Hong Kong prelate and the former archbishop of San Francisco, as the pontiff put his stamp on the elite cadre that rules the Roman Catholic Church. Benedict announced the elevation of 15 cardinals and said the new "princes of the church," as they are known, will be installed March 24, when each is bestowed with a bright red hat that signifies the blood they are willing to sacrifice for their faith.

Los Angeles will be making church history next week, when Pope Benedict XVI installs native son William J. Levada as one of 15 new cardinals in the Vatican. Because of his rank and experience, Levada, 69, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will be first in line Friday to get his red hat. Levada's promotion brings to three the number of Los Angeles-area natives in the College of Cardinals, the body that names a new pope.

Hundreds of Roman Catholics from Southern California are converging on the Vatican for five days of events surrounding Friday's installation of Long Beach-born Archbishop William J. Levada as a cardinal. The ceremonies are also of special interest at St. Anthony High School in Long Beach. And with good reason. It's Levada's alma mater. Students are "so excited, they're beside themselves," said Principal Lori Barr.