Pope Names 22 Cardinals, Including Two From U.S.

Pope John Paul II named 22 new cardinals Sunday, including the archbishop of Chicago and the former archbishop of Denver, adding to the group of prelates that will name his successor.

With the new appointments, John Paul, 77, will have named 106 of the 123 cardinals eligible to vote for the next pope. The United States will have 11 of those votes, second only to Italy’s 23.

Two of the new cardinals, Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna and Dionigi Tettamanzi of Genoa, are considered possible successors to John Paul, whose pontificate has spanned nearly 20 years.

The prelates would be formally elevated at a ceremony Feb. 21.

One of the new American cardinals, Archbishop Francis Eugene George of Chicago, took over the United States’ second-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese last year. The Chicago-born George, 60, had been archbishop in Portland, Ore., before replacing the popular Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who died in November 1996.

The other American named a prince of the church, James Francis Stafford, 65, is a former archbishop of Denver and now head of the Vatican’s council on the laity - the department that oversees the role of lay individuals in church affairs worldwide.