Rome, Italy, Sep 5, 2010 / 10:25 am
Not only is a consistory imminent, but its announcement will come next month according to “Vaticanista” Marco Tosatti. Reporting for the Italian daily La Stampa, the analyst offered a look at who might be included among the 19 likely candidates for being honored as a cardinal at a November election.
The hypothesis of a consistory becomes ever more valid as the number of cardinal-electors, those under 80 years of age and therefore eligible to vote in a papal conclave, approaches the century mark. With the traditional number of voting-age members of the College of Cardinals being 120, there is considerable space for new cardinals.
Many have ventured guesses recently as to when the consistory might come about, but the insider Tosatti goes even farther by pinpointing the likely date of the Pope's announcement. He wrote on Saturday that Benedict XVI “will announce” a consistory during the Synod for the Middle East and added that it “could” come out at the general audience on Oct. 20. The Special Assembly will take place in Rome from Oct. 10-24.
The announcement is generally made by the Pope after the Angelus or the general audience, and tradition dictates that the College of Cardinals convenes for the election a month afterwards.