A symbol of devotion

VATICAN city — The chemical bond between Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and the Negro spiritual leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church was symbolically sealed Lord'S Day with a ring.

Before crowds that had come up from around the human race to St. Peter's Basilica, DiNardo ascended the stairway of the communion table for the 2nd clip in two days. He then knelt before Pope Ruth Benedict XVI, who placed a gold ring imprinted with a rood on his finger.

Before giving DiNardo and 22 other newly created cardinals their rings, the pontiff reminded them that the symbol also united them to the Catholic Church.

"Receive this ring, a mark of dignity, of pastorale concern and of a more than solid communion" with the papacy, he said.

The pope's reminder came at the Mass of the Rings, a twenty-four hours after DiNardo and the others officially joined the College of Cardinals, the top grade of Catholic clergy.

With the aid of the new cardinals, the pope Lord'S Day celebrated Mass at the communion table beneath Bernini's monolithic achromatic and gold canopy.

The two-hour service was chanted mostly in Latin but included Book readings and supplications in English, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, German and Polish.

In his homily, delivered in Italian, the pontiff told the cardinals to pray for inter-Christian peace and unity.

"The supplication for peace and integrity represents your first and primary mission," he said.

He told them that the cardinals were the senate of the church, an award that was meaningful lone because of their faith.

"The self-respect that is being conferred on you and the duties get sense and value only if you have got an bosom and profound human relationship with Jesus," he said.

At the end, the pontiff processed down the centre aisle of the basilica past times an audience of cheering pilgrims who had come up to stand for the geographical places of the 23 cardinals. At the stairway leading to St. Peter's Square, he addressed the travellers in multiple languages.

After the Mass, DiNardo and other cardinals joined the pontiff for lunch.

Celebrations go on today with a papal audience in which DiNardo is expected to present some of his household to the pope. Well-wishers from the archdiocese will be able to watch from a distance in the Vatican's Alice Paul six auditorium.

DiNardo will give his first homily as a cardinal during a Mass for members of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese Tuesday at the Basilica of Santa Mare Maggiore. More than 500 Houston-area Catholics are in Roma for the assorted services, including a choir that volition sing at the Mass.

For Adam Rincon, worshipping in the basilica Lord'S Day with the pontiff and receiving his approval stirred a mixture of emotions.

"I was happy, but I was also nervous at the same time," said the 15-year-old from Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Houston. "He was like 10 feet in presence of me and hearing his voice was breathtaking."

Adam made his first trip to Roma with his mother, Genus Silvia Rincon, to witnesser DiNardo's elevation. One of the foregrounds was entering St. Peter's Basilica, he said.

"I've seen it in pictures, in National Geographic," Adam said. "To come up and experience it, it's a different world."

Getting into that human race was more than hard once in Roma than simply opening a magazine. Adam was not one of the roughly 7,000 ticket holders who made it into the basilica Saturday before all the seating were taken.

Saturday's and Sunday's ceremonials were scheduled for outside in the much bigger St. Peter's Square. But Vatican Palace functionaries moved both interior fearing rain, which was falling steadily Lord'S Day by the end of the Mass.

Securing a topographic point inside the basilica required skilled maneuvering through a crowd and a willingness to get at least three hours in advance.

That's how Margaret Watz of Elevation Campo and members of her drawn-out household establish themselves at the presence of one of the entranceways to St. Peter's Square at 7:15 a.m. Sunday.

When guards opened the gates, many people dashed across the square and up the stairway to the basilica.

The multiple linguistic communications of the Mass were one of the foregrounds for Katie Pfeffer of St. Michael Catholic Church near the Galleria.

But the ceremonial was also a historical occasion, said Pfeffer, who came with her 21-year-old daughter, Kendall.

"To be with the pope, with these cardinals who were elevated, is a true once-in-a-lifetime experience," she said.