Head of Syro-Malabar church ordained as cardinal

Mar George Alencherry, the major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, was on Saturday ordained as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Alencherry, 66, becomes the youngest cardinal in the country and the fourth Keralite to be ordained as a cardinal.

At the investiture ceremony, Alencherry was called in as the 18th by Pope Benedict XVI who presented the new cardinal with scarlet-red biretta and a gold ring.

The decision to elevate Alencherry as cardinal was announced by Vatican on January 6. He was elected as Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church on May 26, 2011 following the death of Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil on April 1, 2011.

The Syro Malabar Church is one of three Catholic churches in India which include the Latin rite and the Syro Malankara rite.

Besides Alencherry, Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday inducted 21 other new cardinals who will one day elect one of their own to succeed him.

The new cardinals are from the United States, Hong Kong, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Romania, Belgium, and Malta.

Around 50,000 faithful from across the world were witness to the ceremony at the Vatican.

The 84-year-old Pope urged the College of Cardinals to "renounce the worldly style of power and glory" and treat the new responsibility as an opportunity to serve the faithful.

"Dear Brothers who are to be enrolled in the College of Cardinals, may Christ's total gift of self on the Cross be for you the foundation, stimulus and strength of a faith operative in charity. May your mission in the Church and the world always be "in Christ" alone, responding to his logic and not that of the world, and may it be illumined by faith and animated by charity which comes to us from the glorious Cross of the Lord," the Pope said.

"The new Cardinals are entrusted with the service of love: love for God, love for his Church, an absolute and unconditional love for his brothers and sisters, even unto shedding their blood, if necessary."

"Furthermore, they are asked to serve the Church with love and vigour, with the transparency and wisdom of teachers, with the energy and strength of shepherds, with the fidelity and courage of martyrs," the Pope said.

With the creation of 22 new cardinals, the College of Cardinals now has 213 members of whom 125, being under the age of eighty, are eligible to vote in an eventual conclave for the election of a new Pope.