Pope names 24 new cardinals, including Wuerl and Burke

Pope Benedict XVI today announced the creation of 24 new cardinals, including two Americans: Archbishops Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s supreme canonical court.

Twenty of the new cardinals are under the age of 80, and thus eligible to vote for the next pope.

A consistory, the event in which new members formally enter the College of Cardinals, is set for Nov. 20 in Rome. It will be the third consistory of Benedict’s papacy, after previous editions in March 2006 and November 2007.

All told, Benedict XVI has now appointed 50 of the roughly 120 cardinals who will elect his successor.

Read the full report: Wuerl and Burke among 24 new cardinals