His health failing, Pope John Paul II added 30 names to the list of his possible successors Tuesday, installing a diverse collection of cardinals in a consistory some say may be his last.
In a ritual-filled ceremony on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, the 83-year-old pope gave the new "princes of the church" their red hats and declared them members of the elite band of churchmen who will elect the next pope.
"We don't know whether that will be in one month or five years," said Scottish Archbishop Keith O'Brien, one of the new cardinals. "But that's really the priority for cardinals."
The pope's increasing frailty, on display during a rigorous week of ceremonies surrounding his 25th anniversary, added poignancy to Tuesday's consistory, the ninth of his pontificate.
As he watched the new cardinals greet one another, all dressed in scarlet to show their willingness to give their lives for the church, John Paul appeared visibly pleased, and at one point seemed to wipe away a tear.
Since it may be John Paul's last consistory, the current roster of cardinals is considered to be the list of possible popes, since cardinals largely choose from among themselves for the top job in the Roman Catholic Church.
John Paul himself didn't read out the names of the new cardinals or actually place their scarlet hats on their heads. And for the second time in a major Vatican ceremony, he didn't pronounce a word of his homily. In the few prayers he did deliver, the pontiff slurred his words, symptoms of the Parkinson's disease which has made it difficult for him to speak.
Tuesday's ceremony brought to 194 the active members of the College of Cardinals, although only 135 of them are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave. Of those 135, John Paul has named all but five.
Yet picking the next pope from among them is anyone's guess, since the group is still large and geographically diverse.
"It's funny, nobody is whispering `he'll be the next man,'" said Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Ukraine. "Nobody has arisen as a personality."
In fact, the college has gotten so large that cardinals wore tags with their names and home dioceses during meetings at the Vatican last week.
In his homily, read by an aide, the pope referred to the variety of the group.
"Enriched by new members, the College of Cardinals, reflecting ever more the multiplicity of the races and cultures that characterize the Christian people, gives new evidence to the unity of every part of Christ's flock," his remarks said.
While the papal field is wide open, there are a handful of known contenders, or "papabili," including one of the new cardinals: Italy's Angelo Scola. He's the patriarch of Venice — a position that produced three popes in the 20th century.
The new candidates come from around the world, from Australia to Zagreb, Vietnam to Venice and on the whole follow John Paul's conservative bent.
The only American in the new group was Cardinal Justin Rigali, the newly appointed archbishop of Philadelphia.
O'Brien made waves a few weeks ago when he suggested that celibacy and contraception should be up for discussion. Current church teaching requires celibacy for priests and bans contraception.
At a news conference Monday, O'Brien stressed that he merely meant that he would participate in a discussion of those topics if it arose, but that he fully obeyed John Paul's teachings.
"When a decision is made, I accept," he said.
O'Brien is the third Scottish cardinal since the Reformation. Ghana is getting its first with Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the archbishop of Cape Coast. And the new Indian cardinal, Ranchi Archbishop Telesphore Placidus Toppo, is the first tribal cardinal.
The crowd at Tuesday's ceremony reflected their diverse backgrounds, with a Ghana contingent draping African cloth over police barricades in St. Peter's Square, a group of Venetian gondoliers in their striped shirts and caps cheering on Scola and a handful of Scottish bagpipers in their kilts on hand for O'Brien's elevation.
Jane Nwankwo of Lagos, Nigeria, dressed in a purple head scarf and green dress, said she cried during the ceremony when Lagos' archbishop was elevated.
"I thought I was in heaven. I think this is the highest place I will be," she said.
"The Holy Father always looks around to make sure that every part of the human race within the church is recognized in the College of Cardinals," observed Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C. "And he's accomplished it really well."
Indeed, under John Paul the college has gotten more international and less Italian, although Europe as a whole still is the largest bloc, followed by the Latin Americans.
The Polish-born John Paul broke 455 years of Italian dominance of the papacy when he was elected pope in 1978. One of the dominant questions now is whether the cardinals will return the papacy to the Italians or look for another nationality, perhaps someone from the developing world.
John Paul named the new group on Sept. 28, acting months before he was expected to amid increasing concerns about the toll his Parkinson's disease was taking on him.
He also announced a 31st cardinal whose name was kept secret, or "in pectore." That's a Vatican formula often used when the pope wants to name a cardinal in a country where the church is oppressed.
The Vatican said John Paul was actually creating 31 cardinals Tuesday, even though only 30 were installed in their new posts. Under church law, an unnamed cardinal enjoys none of the rights or duties of a cardinal until his name is published. If he is under age 80, he wouldn't be able to vote in a conclave unless John Paul names him before he dies.