By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer

 VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II on Sunday January 21, 2001, named 37 cardinals - an unusually high number, putting a heavy stamp on the body that will elect his successor.

 With the new nominations, the 80-year-old pontiff has personally appointed all but 10 of the cardinals eligible to vote in a secret conclave to choose the next pope.

 The total number of voting cardinals traditionally has been 120, but the pope announced that he was breaking that custom, bringing the number to 128.

 ``I have the joy to announce that on Feb. 21, the feast of the throne of St. Peter, I will hold a consistory in which, breaking yet again the numerical limit set by Pope Paul VI ... I will nominate 37 new cardinals. Here are their names,'' John Paul said, going on to read them, one by one, during his usual Sunday noon appearance from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square.

 The new cardinals come from five continents.

 They include three from the United States: Monsignor Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington; Monsignor Edward Egan, archbishop of New York; and a Jesuit theologian, Avery Dulles, a professor at New York's Fordham University who at 82 years of age is too old to vote in a conclave.

 Dulles is the son of John Foster Dulles, who was U.S. secretary of state during the Cold War years.

 Other prominent names include a Vietnamese, Monsignor Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan; the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio; the archbishop of Westminster, England, Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, and the archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela, Ignacio Antonio Velasco Garcia.

 Others are the archbishop of Lima, Peru, Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne; and the archbishop of Lyon, France, Louis-Marie Bille. Also named is the archbishop of Dublin, Ireland, Desmond Connell.

 Among the Italians is a close aide to the pope, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Re, who the Italian media say is a possible papal successor. From Germany, John Paul named Monsignor Walter Kasper, head of a pontifical council.

 The archbishop of Bombay, India, Ivan Dias was also nominated.

 Other Latin American nominations go to the archbishop of Quito, Ecuador, Antonio Jose Gonzalez Zumarraga; the archbishop of Sao Salvador da Bahia, in Brazil, Geraldo Majella Agnelo; and the archbishop of Bogota, Colombia, Pedro Rubiano Saenz.

 Other Latin American nominations include Brazil's Claudio Hummes, Sao Paulo's archbishop; Chile's Monsignor Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, archbishop of Santiago; Honduras' Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, and Lima, Peru Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne.

 Africa's Ivory Coast is represented with Abidjan's archbishop, Bernard Agre.

 From Europe, the pope nominated Monsignor Jose Da Cruz Policarpo, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal; and from Spain, Toledo's archbishop, Francisco Alvarez Martinez.

 From the former Soviet Union, the archbishop of Vilnius, Lithuania, Audrys Juozas Backis, was named to be a cardinal.

 Many of the other nominations came from the Vatican's hierarchy, from countries ranging from Italy to Syria. Most of those men head Vatican congregations or other offices.

 Some of the pope's choices clearly reflected his gratitude for work well done close to him. A Vatican Radio official, Monsignor Roberto Tucci, who traveled around the world preparing papal pilgrimages for two decades, was among those named to be a cardinal. Turning 80 in April, he won't be eligible to vote in the conclave for very long.

Since becoming pontiff in 1978, John Paul, with Sunday's list, has named a total of 154 cardinals, some of whom have since died.

 As he has done in the past, John Paul on Sunday said he also was naming men ``in pectore'' cardinals, meaning their names are being held secret for now - ``in pectore'' meaning ``in the heart.''

 In the past, such nominations have been of cardinals from places where they possibly risked danger, such as an elderly Chinese bishop, Ignatius Kung, who was named by John Paul in 1979 but learned of his appointment only in 1991.

 Among the names made public Sunday January 21, 2001, Nguyen Van Thuan, 72, was jailed by the Vietnamese after the Communists took over Saigon in 1975, then sent to internment camps before being allowed to travel to Rome in 1988.
 
 

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