Pope Francis announced the names of 19 cardinals who will officiall take office in February. The appointees will include churchmen from Burkina Faso and Haiti, as a result of the Pope's commitment to the underprivileged.

These cardinals will hold the highest ranks in the Roman Catholic Church, second only after the Pope. There will be a formal ceremony to instate the cardinals on Feb 22, 2014. Sixteen out of the 19 appointees are aged less than 80. This makes them eligible for entering a conclave to make the selection of the next Pope. The three other appointees who are aged over 80 are from the Caribbean Island of St Lucia, Italy and Spain.

Reverend Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, informed that cardinals were chosen from countries like Burkina Faso and Haiti as Pope Francis believed in maintaining his focus on the underprivileged countries, which happens to be one of the primary goals of the current head of the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has selected the cardinals literally from all over the world. They countries include Canada, Germany, Nicaragua, Italy, United Kingdom, Argentina, Chile, South Korea and the Philippines. The names were announced during the Sunday address of the Pope at St Peter's Square on Jan 12. According to Alan Johnston from the BBC, some of the names declared are quite established as clergymen at the Vatican.

Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, has also been named among the newly appointed cardinals. He expressed how moved he was by the announcement as he called it a "humbling moment" to be one of the appointees.

Pope Francis is the first Latin American pontiff. Even though he has been known for not following protocols to the tee, his announcement on Sunday did follow the established rule of not keeping over 120 cardinals eligible for the selection of the next Pope.

Here is the complete list of the 19 newly appointed cardinals:

Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli (Argentina), Archbishop Orani João Tempesta (Brazil), Archbishop Vincent Nichols (United Kingdom), Archbishop Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo (Burkina Faso), Archbishop Gérald Cyprien Lacroix (Canada), Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello (Chile), Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller (Germany), Archbishop Chibly Langlois (Haiti), Archbishop Beniamino Stella (Italy), Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti (Italy), Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri (Italy), Archbishop Pietro Parolin (Italy), Monsignor Loris Francesco Capovilla* (Italy), Archbishop Jean-Pierre Kutwa (Ivory Coast), Archbishop Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano (Nicaragua), Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo (Philippines), Archbishop Andrew Yeom Soo Jung (South Korea), Archbishop Fernando Sebastián Aguilar* (Spain) and Monsignor Kelvin Edward Felix* (St Lucia).

*This cardinal is not eligible to elect the next Pope.