It's four years since the Pope last created any new cardinals and since then 16 of them have died. The new cardinals will be created at a consistory to be held at the Vatican on February the 21st. At least two of the new cardinals must be regarded as "papabile" -- that is to say, possible successors to the present Pontiff.

They are the 52-year-old Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schonborn, a member of the Dominican Order, and the 63-year-old Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi, the archbishop of Genoa in Italy, who is secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference.

The only new cardinal who will not have the right to vote in the next conclave because he is 87 years old, is a retired Polish missionary priest in Africa, who spent five years in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. Using special powers granted him under rules established by his predecessor, the Pope has exceeded the normal limit of 120 members of the College of Cardinals, bringing the total electoral membership to its highest number in history - 123.