VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI clearly put his stamp on the group that will eventually elect his successor with his naming of 22 new cardinals Friday, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong.
The group is heavy on Europeans, particularly Italians holding important Vatican posts, and includes only three prelates from outside the West: a Brazilian, an Indian and a Chinese.
The German pope, who long served at the Vatican himself before his election to the papacy in 2005, has now named half of the prelates eligible to vote in the next papal conclave.
Cardinals are the pope’s top advisers, the elite group of churchmen who will eventually elect Benedict’s successor. Of the 22 named Friday, 18 are younger than 80, raising to 125 the number of cardinals eligible to vote in the next papal conclave. Cardinals 80 and older are not allowed to cast such votes.
The list includes two Americans: Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the former archbishop of Baltimore.
The pope announced the names “with great joy” after an Epiphany Mass that ended the Vatican’s main Christmas celebrations. The Associated Press
