Pope names latest batch of cardinals

THe Pope named 24 new cardinals yesterday, putting his mark on the body that will elect his successor and giving a boost to Italian hopes to regain the papacy.

Among the new cardinals are two Americans and prelates from key posts in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Pope Benedict said the new "princes of the church" would be formally elevated at a ceremony in Rome on 20 November, making the announcement "with joy" at the end of his weekly public audience.

The new cardinals include Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, DC, and Archbishop Raymond Burke, an American who leads the Vatican's supreme court and has been sharply critical of the US Democratic Party for its support of abortion rights. Other key posts include Warsaw, Poland; Munich; Kinshasa, Congo; Quito, Equador; Aparecida, Brazil; Lusaka, Zambia; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and the leader in Egypt of the Catholic Coptic church.

Many of the new cardinals head Vatican offices, including Archbishop Kurt Koch, a Swiss in charge of the Vatican's relations with other Christians and Jews.

Cardinals are close advisers to a pope, but their key job is to elect the pontiff. With the installation of the new cardinals, Benedict in just five years has named nearly half of the 120 prelates under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave following the death of a pope.

Eight of the new cardinals under 80 are Italians, giving them a total of 25 - nearly half of the Europeans in the electing body of the College of Cardinals.

Italians held the papacy for 455 years until the election of Poland's John Paul II in 1978, followed by the German-born Benedict in 2005. "The preponderance of Italians would suggest the scale has tipped in favour of an Italian candidate for the next conclave," said Gerard O'Connell, a veteran Irish Vatican correspondent.

With the church rocked by a global clerical sex abuse crisis, Benedict named as cardinal in Munich, his former diocese, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, who has been prominent in efforts to clean up the scandal in Germany.

However, the pope passed up giving a cardinal's red hat to Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who has been the Irish church's leading advocate for Catholic openness in its child-abuse scandals.

Meanwhile, a Rome court has upheld the seizure of ?23 million euros from a Vatican bank account, The seizure last month was based on alleged violations of Italy's laws against money laundering.