On Saturday, Pope Benedict will preside over a “consistory” for the creation of new Cardinals. The Cardinals – present and designated – will meet with the Pope tomorrow (Friday) to discuss various matters. (see below) The ceremony itself will be on Saturday, followed by a Mass on Sunday (Christ the King), then followed by the “courtesy visits” the public is invited to pay to the new Cardinals, who are scattered for the occasion throughout Vatican City, mostly in the Apostolic Palace, on late Sunday afternoon.
 The new Cardinals are listed here. Of special interest to those in the US are the two new Cardinals from this country:
Archbishop John Foley, originally from Philadelphia, for decades associated most closely with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Archbishop Daniel DiNardo, originally from Pittsburgh, now Archbishop of Houston.
(Much more after the jump)

(Some readers will remember that last spring, my daughter participated in the Catholic Forensic League National competition, which was in Houston. On Saturday night, there was a Mass at which Archbishop DiNardo preached, calling on his own experience of speech and debate in either high school or college -he even still had some of his old index cards he’d used. I think she said he’d used them in Extemp events. She was impressed with him then, and when he was touched for the red hat, her jaw dropped at the thought, “I might have seen the next Pope talk about debate meets!” Long shot, some would say, but you never know!)
John Allen has a nice piece up about Archbishop Foley:

I  was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer Nov. 18 Nov. 18 calling Foley “the nicest guy in the Vatican,” and I meant it. Formerly President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Foley is today the Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. While each of the 23 new cardinals who will receive the red hat on Saturday no doubt has a story to tell, I’m going to focus here on Foley because Americans who have lived in Rome can’t help thinking of him in some sense as our local pastor.
Four qualities in particular, at least for me, stand out.

A Pastor’s Heart: Despite having served for a quarter-century in the Vatican, Foley has always seemed more at home in pastoral settings than in the corridors of ecclesiastical power. Foley is a regular at the Church of Santa Susanna, for example, the American parish in Rome, presiding over confirmations and celebrating Mass on special occasions. (Indeed, Foley is to be at Santa Susanna this Thursday to offer the annual Thanksgiving Mass.) Over the years, legions of people in Rome have stories to tell of times Foley helped them behind the scenes during periods of struggle.

snip

• Humility: Foley’s status as the president of a pontifical council would have justified the expense of separate lodgings in Rome, but over the years he has chosen instead to stay at the Villa Stritch, the residence for Americans working in the Vatican. He also drives himself to work, often stopping along the way to offer a lift to someone he knows. These are small gestures, but they reveal much about the man, who has never exploited the privileges of office in order to exalt himself.

Each year the North American College in Rome bestows an award upon an American churchman during its annual Rector’s Dinner, and in 2004 the honor went to Foley. Instead of cataloguing his accomplishments or dropping names, Foley instead spoke directly to the seminarians that night, telling them that not a day has gone by during his career that he doesn’t thank God for the gift of the priesthood. That’s Foley in a nutshell — at his core, he thinks of himself as a priest first, a potentate second.

The Houston paper, as we mentioned before, is blogging it all and doing extensive regular reporting:
An interview
The hundreds of Houston-area pilgrims who are there
An area singer who’ll be involved in the celebration.
From CNA, Archbishop DiNardo’s twin sister reflects.
And to avoid being all that  so parochial,  here’s a bit on the Cardinal-designate Archbishop of Armagh, Sean Brady:

Baron Georges Minne, formerly organist at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, will play the Cathedral carillon bells on Saturday, 24 November at 9.30am to coincide with the consistory in Rome.
The newly-created Cardinal Brady will return from Rome to Armagh on Thursday, 29 November. The new Cardinal will celebrate Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh that evening at 8pm. His Eminence’s journey home from Dublin Airport will include stops along the way as outlined below:
12.30pm ­ 1.15pm St Peter’s Church, Drogheda
2.30pm ­ 3pm Ardee
3.30pm ­ 4.15pm St Patrick’s Church, Dundalk
5pm ­ 5.15pm Newtownhamilton
5.30pm ­ 6pm Keady
6.15pm ­ 6.30pm Ballymacnab
7pm Arrive outskirts of Armagh for Parade through City Centre
8pm Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral

Since all the journos on the beat are in Rome, that gives an opportunity for face time with other hierachs:
John Thavis of CNS blogs a bit on a meeting journalists had today with Cardinal Levada:

The setting alone was impressive. Cardinal Levada hosted the reporters in the “Sala di Consulta,” where three times a month about 30 consulters — mostly professors at Rome pontifical universities — meet to offer perspectives on whatever the congregation considers the pressing issues of the day.
Sometimes these discussions are the breeding ground of new documents; sometimes they’re just interesting exchanges of opinions. Participants sit at a large oval table outfitted with microphones. On the wall are portraits of Pope Pius V, a former prefect of the congregation and now its patron saint, and Pope Benedict XVI, who presided here for 24 years before becoming pope.
At the same table, the cardinal and bishop members of the congregation meet once a month — always on a Wednesday — to review issues and make decisions.
With the Catholic journalists, Cardinal Levada fielded questions ranging from ecumenism to excommunication. This was mostly a background conversation, but a few things can be disclosed:
– The cardinal doesn’t anticipate another Vatican document on politics and Communion as the U.S. election campaign gets into full swing over the coming year.
– The congregation is pressing ahead with a global study of “natural law theories for moral theology,” which could turn into a bigger project.
– The cardinal’s weekly meetings with Pope Benedict are not pro forma. As one might guess, the pope still takes a keen interest in the details of doctrinal affairs.

John Allen reports on a response from Cardinal Berone, Vatican Secretary of State, about the composition of the College:

That Oct. 19 NCR piece observed that, “Two-thirds of the cardinals come from the global North, while two-thirds of the Catholic people live in the South.”
In response, Bertone made two points.
“The pope is free in a sovereign sense in the choice of cardinals,” Bertone said. “If one considers only in a mathematical sense the relationship between the faithful and the cardinals, it could perhaps seem unequal; but if one looks more carefully at the data on the distribution of priests and bishops in the world, the proportions appear more balanced.”
“In any event, the fact remains that the College of Cardinals is not, and cannot be, a mere assembly in which the various local churches are represented using democratic methods. It is entirely different, as popes have repeatedly explained in the speeches and homilies given during the consistories.”
In an accompanying piece, Cardinale observes that the two countries with the largest number of cardinals under the age of 80 and thus able to vote for the next pope, Italy (21) and the United States (13), are also those with the largest numbers of bishops and priests. Italy has more than 51,000 priests and over 500 bishops, while the United States has over 45,000 priests and more than 430 bishops.
The suggestion is that Benedict XVI’s recent choices of new members for the College of Cardinals may not be in line with the total number of Catholics in various regions of the world, but it does more accurately reflect the distribution of clergy.

Now, on to the ceremonies themselves.
The Vatican’s web page for the event is here. Texts of homilies and so on will be posted there. Eventually. In English. Eventually.
Friday’s meeting,  from VIS:

The ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of 23 new cardinals will be preceded – tomorrow, November 23 – by a meeting of prayer and reflection of the College of Cardinals, to take place in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall. After praying the Middle Hour (Terce), at 9.30 a.m. the Holy Father will greet the cardinals present. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity will then deliver a report on the theme: ‘Information, reflections and evaluation concerning the current moment in ecumenical dialogue.’ This will be followed by contributions from the cardinals, lasting until 12.30 p.m.
“The meeting will resume at 5 p.m. with the celebration of Vespers. Then, following an introduction by the Holy Father, a free exchange of ideas will take place between the cardinals on the life of the Church in general. The day of prayer and reflection will conclude at 7 p.m. with an address by the Supreme Pontiff.”

There is some discussion that Anglican outreach might be on the menu.
The consistory ritual:

*Following a liturgical greeting, the Pope reads the formula of creation , and solemnly proclaims the names of the new cardinals.
*The first of the new cardinals then addresses the Holy Father, on behalf of everyone.
*This is followed by the Liturgy of the Word, the Pope’s homily, the Profession of Faith and the taking of the oath by each cardinal.
*Each new cardinal then approaches the Holy Father and kneels before him to receive the cardinal’s berretta and to be assigned a title or deaconry :
*The Pope places the berretta on his head and says, in part: “(This is) red as a sign of the dignity of the office of a cardinal, signifying that you are ready to act with fortitude, even to the point of spilling your blood for the increase of the Christian faith, for peace and harmony among the people of God, for freedom and the spread of the Holy Roman Catholic Church”.
* The new cardinals are assigned a church of Rome ( “Title ” or ” Deaconry “), as a sign of their participation in the pastoral care of the Pope for the City.
* The Holy Father hands over the Bull of the Creation of Cardinals , assigns the Title or Deaconry and exchanges a kiss of peace with the new members of the College of Cardinals.
*The cardinals also exchange such a sign among themselves.
*The rite is concluded with the Prayer of the Faithful, the recitation of the Our Father and the final blessing.

The schedule and locations for Monday’s courtesy visits
(Back in March 2006, at the last consistory, Zadok went on the courtesy visit trail and posted a few photos.)
The ceremonies will be studied with great interest by liturgy-watchers, since these are the first big ceremonies arranged under the supervision  of the new Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, Msgr. Guido Marini.
Finally, a translation of a piece that appeared in an Italian paper today, written by the head of Italian state TV’s Vatican bureau, courtesy PRF:

«Usque ad sanguinis effusionem» – ‘up to shedding blood’ – is the solemn formula promounced by the Pope when he places the cardinal’s hat (biretta) on a new cardinal of the church and assigns him his titular church.
The new Princes of the Church kneel before the Pope at this time. The consistory on Saturday, November 13, is not sacramental. But its brilliant ritual has a sense of grandeur and universal breadth, as well as the vocation of martyrdom which is implied in the office and the title it carries.
It is the second consistory of the Ratzinger era, with 23 new cardinals, 18 of whom will be electors in a future Conclave, and 5 over the elector age of 80.
«Accipe anulum de manu Petri» – “Accept the ring from the hands of Peter” – Benedict XVI will tell them at the Eucharistic concelebration on Sunday at which he will give them their ring of office.
These are extraordinary words that belong only to an institution which is the only one on the face of the earth which gives the possibility to any of its faithful to become an absolute monarch, which the Pope is, in earthly terms. Or to become a ‘prince of the blood’ with the title of Eminence – when one becomes a cardinal and, theoretically, a potential Pope.
The College of Cardinals has been called the most exclusive club in the world. From having become in the last few centuries a symbol of earthly power and glory, the cardinalate, under John Paul II, has returned to the idea of a heroic life offered in the service of the Church, marked, if need be, by difficulties, suffering and even persecution.
Having reported the live broadcasts of consistories in the past 20 years, I see vividly in my mind the luminous figures of priests and bishops coming from the so-called ‘silent churches’ – the Churches of the East, under the communist regime – who were rasied to this honor.
People like the Albanian parish priest Michel Koliqi, who could not walk up the steps towards the Pope and was carried up to him like a fragile twig, named cardinal at age 92. The scarlet to seal a life and a history of decades in prison and torture.
Or the tears of the Romanian Alecander Todea, whose persecutors made him believe that his mother had died of a broken heart because he ahd refused to turn Orthodox.
Or Miroslav Vlk, the current Archbishop of Prague, who spent his prison years as a humble dishwasher and bootblack. Vinko Pulic, of the martyr city of Sarajevo. The Vietnamese Van Thuan, who chose to continue wearing a pectoral cross fashioned of barbed wire given to him by his jailers. The Chinese Ignatius Gong Pin-mei, who had been condemned to life in prison for being a ‘counter-revolutionary’. The Byelorussian Kasimierz Swiatek, deported by the Soviets to a Siberian gulag simply for being Catholic.
John Paul II also used the cardinalate to force political equilibrium, to denounce the sufferings of Christian communities, or even the ‘tragic utopia’ of socialism. Thus, Gabriel Zbeir Wako, archbishop of Khartoum, capital of a Sudan where the generals sought to impose sharia as national law. Or in Italy itself, great communicators like Ersilio Tonini, emeritus archbishop of Ravenna.
They were among John Paul II’s cardinals, and it is with people like them that perhaps, public opinion has changed about these men who are dressed in the red of blood and martyrdom.

EWTN’s coverage:

ORDINARY PUBLIC CONSISTORY FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS LIVE 1:30
From St. Peter’s Square, Consistory with Pope Benedict XVI as he elevates 23 prelates to the level of cardinal.
Sat, 11/24/07 4:30 AM Live
Sat, 11/24/07 2:00 PM Encore
EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION WITH THE NEW CARDINALS AND PRESENTATION OF THE CARDINALITIAL RING 2:00
Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Holy Mass for the Feast of Christ the King with the 23 New cardinals Concelebrating and receiving the Cardinal ring.
Sun, 11/25/07 4:30 AM Live
Sun, 11/25/07 12:00 PM Encore
Mon, 11/26/07 12:00 AM Encore 

And, of course, you can watch it all via the Vatican’s live feed, which you can access here.