2 Americans among 22 elevated to cardinal by pope

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday brought 22 Catholic churchmen into the elite club of cardinals who will elect his successor, cementing the Italian majority in a future conclave but also giving New York's archbishop a position of prominence.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan emerged as something of the star of the consistory, delivering a highly praised speech on spreading the faith and mentioned in some Italian media as an improbable "papabile," or having the qualities of a future pope.

Traditionally Americans are ruled out as papal contenders, with the argument that the world doesn't need a superpower pope. But Dolan's joyful demeanor seemed to have struck a chord in a Vatican that has been anything but joyful over a rash of news reports about political infighting and financial mismanagement.

"He certainly is going to be given many responsibilities as a cardinal," said the other American who got a red hat Saturday, Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, the outgoing archbishop of Baltimore. Asked if he thought Dolan had the stuff to be pope, O'Brien deadpanned: "His mother thinks so."

In all, 22 churchmen got their red hats Saturday, including the archbishops of Prague, Toronto, Florence, Utrecht, and Hong Kong as well as the heads of several Vatican offices.

Seven of the 22 were Italian, adding to the eight voting-age Italian cardinals named at the last consistory in November 2010. As of Saturday, Italy will have 30 cardinals out of the 125 under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a future conclave.

That boosts Italy's chances of taking back the papacy for one of its own following decades under a Polish and a German pope - or at least playing the kingmaker role.