NEW YORK: Anti-Gay Archbishop Timothy Dolan To Be Promoted To Cardinal

Apparently satisfied with New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan's campaign against gay civil rights, the Vatican will be promoting him to cardinal.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan will be among those elevated to cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church in a Vatican ceremony next month, the Archdiocese of New York announced in a news release on Friday. He was among 22 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. Eighteen of them, including Archbishop Dolan, are under the age of 80, Reuters reported, and are therefore eligible to enter the secret conclave to elect a new pope after Benedict dies. There are 120 cardinals who serve as papal elector. Vatican Radio carried the official announcement and the names of all those who will be elevated in a ceremony on Feb. 18.

Last month Dolan claimed that Catholic churches in New York were being threatened with lawsuits unless they hosted same-sex weddings, a ridiculous lie because such suits are specifically barred by state statute.