VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI gave each of his 15 new cardinals – including Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley – a golden ring to symbolize their renewed vows of fidelity to the church during a Mass Saturday on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Tens of thousands of people – family, friends and supporters – packed a sun-drenched St. Peter’s square, waving flags from the cardinals’ 11 homelands and toting banners adorned with their pictures.

In his first consistory, Benedict has selected churchmen from Spain, Slovenia, South Korea and France to join the elite College of Cardinals – the “princes” of the Roman Catholic Church. The cardinals’ primary task is electing a pope but they also are called on to advise the pontiff on running the church.

During Mass, the German pontiff placed a golden ring embossed with a crucifix and engraved with Benedict’s papal seal on each man’s right hand.

The pope said the ring was a symbol of the cardinals’ commitment and fidelity to the church, like the rings exchanged by a bride and groom.

“May your acceptance of the ring be for you a renewal of your Yes,’ your Here I am,’ addressed both to the Lord Jesus who chose you and constituted you, and to his holy church which you are called to serve with the love of a spouse,” he said.

The pope and new cardinals wore golden vestments that fluttered in the breeze.

A day earlier, the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica were awash in red as Benedict embraced the scarlet-robed cardinals and placed crimson hats on their heads – symbols of their elite rank and their willingness to shed blood for the church.

During Friday’s consistory to formally elevate the 15 new cardinals, tears welled up in Benedict’s eyes as he gripped the shoulders of Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Polish prelate who faithfully served his predecessor, John Paul II, for 40 years.

Benedict referred to John Paul during his homily Saturday, noting that his predecessor was particularly devoted to Mary, the mother of Christ. Saturday is the Feast of the Annunciation – when, according to the Bible, an angel told Mary that she would bear a child.

Benedict recalled that John Paul had attributed his survival of the 1981 assassination attempt in St. Peter’s to Mary’s protection.

“In memory of that tragic event, he had a mosaic of the Virgin placed high up in the Apostolic Palace, looking down over St. Peter’s Square, so as to accompany the key moments and the daily unfolding of his long reign,” he said.

Twelve of the new cardinals named by Benedict are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave electing a pope. The new additions raised the total number of cardinals to 193, 120 of whom can vote.

After Saturday’s Mass, the pope invited 140 members of the College of Cardinals who attended the consistory for lunch in a Vatican auditorium.

O’Malley, who was brought in to clean up the Church in Boston after a major sex abuse scandal, called the consistory on Friday “a beautiful moment.”

“I thought of the 2,000 years of history of the church, of St. Peter who gave up his life,” said O’Malley. “And now there I was. … Who would have thought?”

O’Malley was elevated along with William Levada, formerly the archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. Levada took over Benedict’s old job as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s chief doctrinal watchdog.

The new cardinals also included Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, an outspoken champion of religious freedom in China; Archbishop Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas, Venezuela, who has sought to reduce tensions between the church and President Hugo Chavez; and Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales of Manila, Philippines, the Catholic bastion of Asia.

AP-ES-03-25-06 1722EST