Pope Benedict installed his first group of new cardinals yesterday, elevating 15 men from Hong Kong to Boston to join the exclusive Roman Catholic group that advises him and will one day elect his successor.
The ceremony, held on a cool day under dull skies on the steps of St Peter's Basilica, including a prayer for religious freedom in China, where the Vatican says Catholics loyal to the Pope are not allowed to practice their faith openly.
Pope Benedict, less than a month away from his first anniversary as Pope, gave each of the men their red cardinal's hats and urged them in a homily to preach a message of love and spread the faith.
"I am counting on you to see to it that the Church's solicitude for the poor and needy challenges the world with a powerful statement on the civilisation of love," he said.
Handing each man his four-cornered biretta hat, he recalled they were coloured red to signify a cardinal's commitment to spread and defend the faith even if it meant spilling his blood.
Twelve of the 15 new cardinals are under 80 and thus eligible to enter a conclave to choose a pope. They are mostly from Europe, Asia and the US.
Krakow Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, 66, was the best-known face, having been at the late Pope John Paul's side during 26 years as his faithful private secretary and one of the most influential men in the Vatican.
Cardinal Dziwisz received the biggest round of applause and even the Pope seemed filled with emotion when he embraced him. Cardinal Dziwisz remains a living symbol of the pontificate that ended a year ago. Cardinal Dziwisz's lips could be seen saying "Thank You, Thank You" in Italian.
The most influential was William Levada, 69, the former archbishop of San Francisco appointed by Pope Benedict last May to replace him as head of the Vatican's powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The biggest surprise of the new cardinals, whose names were first announced last month, was the elevation of Hong Kong's Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun.
Cardinal Zen is an outspoken supporter of democracy and critic of Beijing's restrictive religious policies, which do not allow Chinese Catholics to recognise the Pope's authority.
A prayer read to the congregation in Chinese during the ceremony remembered "all those who still suffer for their Christian faith" and that they would soon see the fruit of their suffering.
The Pope, whose German homeland was divided into democratic and communist zones for 40 years, also promoted Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, Archbishop of the South Korean capital Seoul and Church administrator for Pyongyang in communist North Korea.
Archbishop Sean O'Malley, who took over in Boston in 2003 to clean up after a clerical sexual abuse scandal forced Cardinal Bernard Law to resign, was the second American who received his red cardinal's hat at the ceremony.
Other new cardinals included archbishops Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas, Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, France, Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain and Carlo Caffara of Bologna, Italy.
After yesterday's ceremony, known as a consistory, the Church has a total of 193 cardinals, 120 of them under 80 and able to vote for the next Pope.