Pope Installs 15 New Cardinals

Two Americans Among New 'Princes' Of The Church Elevated By Benedict

(CBS/AP) 
"I think the general direction was we have to be clearheaded, charitable and know what we're about and obviously support all those moderate forces everywhere throughout the world who are happy to talk and to try to work for the common good," he said.

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, meanwhile, said the Vatican was studying the "best formula" for reconciling with the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X, founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The cardinal heads the Vatican commission created to try to negotiate with the society.

Lefebvre founded the Switzerland-based Society of St. Pius X in 1969, opposed to many of the liberalizing reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, including the use of local languages in the Mass instead of Latin.

The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre in 1988, after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent. The four bishops were excommunicated as well.

Benedict has made clear he wants relations with the group to be normalized, but thorny issues remain. In August, he met with the current head of the society, Bishop Bernard Fellay, who is one of the excommunicated bishops. Both sides said they had agreed to take steps to resolve their differences.

Fellay has said he believes Rome will grant the society a special status within the church, known as an apostolic administration, where the society and local bishops would have "parallel authority" over Lefebvre's followers.

Following Friday's ceremony, Europe will still have the vast majority of cardinals at 100, 60 of whom are of voting age. Latin America is next with 20 voting-age cardinals, followed by North America with 16. Asia has 13, Africa nine and Oceania two.

The new Filipino cardinal, Gaudencio Borbon Rosales, told AP Television News that the decision by Benedict to name three new Asian cardinals showed that Asia was important to the Catholic Church, home to two-thirds of the world's population as well as economic powerhouses.

"I thank God because we are being acknowledged in the whole world," he said. "The Philippines was considered to be the only Catholic country in Asia, but it is not any more. Now smaller countries are too, like Timor and Korea."