Pictures From John Cardinal Onaiyekan’s Consecration By Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday officially named Nigeria’s Archbishop John Onaiyekan and five other non-European cardinals to the body that is usually entrusted with the task of electing a Pope. The Pope while consecrating the new Cardinals said the move underlined the Catholic Church’s diversity.

“In this consistory, I want to highlight … that the Church is the Church of all peoples,” the Pope said at the ceremony during which the new “princes of the Church” received scarlet red berettas and gold rings.

The six new cardinals are from Colombia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States. They’ve now joined the elite body that advises the pope and elects his successor upon death.