Angelicum Alumni Elevated to College of Cardinals

Pope Benedict XVI elevated two prominent Angelicum alumni, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, to College of Cardinals, where they will be called upon by the pope to serve as advisors at consistories on church affairs, and they will be among members of a conclave that elects successors of the pope. Cardinals can vote in a conclave until they reach the age of 80. Watch the slideshow above of the Pilgrimage to Rome for the Consistory. Cardinal O’Brien was named Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian (Knights) Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher on August 29, 2011. The Rome-based position is usually held by a cardinal. Cardinal John P. Foley resigned from the position last February due to illness and died in Philadelphia, December 11, 2011. The order is a chivalric organization dedicated to promoting and defending Christianity in the Holy Land, supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and responding to the needs of Catholics in the region. Cardinal O’Brien also remains head of the Baltimore Archdiocese until Pope Benedict names his successor there. Timothy Dolan was born in St. Louis and ordained a priest in 1976, for the St. Louis Archdiocese and then served in local parishes. Subsequent assignments included service at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, vice-rector at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, and rector at North American College in Rome. Pope John Paul II named him an auxiliary bishop of St, Louis in 2001, and archbishop of Milwaukee in 2002. Pope Benedict XVI named him archbishop of New York in 2009. Edwin O’Brien was born in New York and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1965. He served as a chaplain at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, and later as an Army chaplain in Vietnam. He served as secretary to New York’s Cardinal Terence Cooke and Cardinal John O’Connor and as rector at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York and North American College, Rome. He holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the Angelicum University in Rome. In 1996, he was named an auxiliary bishop of New York. In 1997, he was named coadjutor archbishop for the Archdiocese for Military Services USA, and became head of the military archdiocese later that year. He was named archbishop of Baltimore in 2007.