VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI named his first batch of cardinals Wednesday, sending a strong political messages with nominations in Hong Kong and Venezuela and promoting two Americans with experience in the church sex abuse scandal.

Benedict named 15 new “princes” of the Roman Catholic Church during his weekly general audience, 12 of whom are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in the conclave that will one day elect the pope’s successor. He said the prelates, who also include sentimental favorite Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, Pope John Paul II’s longtime private secretary, would receive their red hats at a Vatican ceremony March 24.

The cardinals come from 11 countries on five continents and include the archbishops of Boston; Krakow, Poland; Seoul, South Korea; Bordeaux, France; Bologna, Italy; Manila, Philippines; and Toledo, Spain.

Along with the Boston archbishop, Sean P. O’Malley, the other American selected was Archbishop William Levada, who has taken over Benedict’s old job as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

A key appointment is that of Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, an outspoken China critic and supporter of the underground church on the mainland.

Benedict has sought to restore diplomatic relations with China and Zen’s nomination could be seen as an affront to Beijing. However, China experts said Benedict’s selection was also practical, given that Zen is an expert on the Chinese church and as cardinal will serve as a close papal adviser.

China broke ties with the Vatican in 1951 and demands that Catholics worship only in churches approved by the state-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association, which does not recognize the pope’s authority.

“Perhaps only the Patriotic Association will see him in certain ways as an enemy because the Patriotic Association is always struggling for control of the church,” said the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, a China expert in Rome and founder of the Vatican-affiliated news agency AsiaNews.

But he stressed that “what the church, Monsignor Zen and the Vatican would like is just to be free to express our own faith, to express the freedom of religion, not to be involved in politics.”

Analysts also said China is unlikely to react strongly _ at least in public _ to Zen’s selection for fear of alienating Catholics in the former British colony, where the church is allowed to operate freely.

Benedict also nominated Caracas Archbishop Jorge Urosa Savino, who has sought to defuse recent tensions between the church in Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez.

Venezuela’s only other cardinal, Rosalio Castillo Lara, a retired Vatican official, has been fiercely critical of Chavez, accusing him of acting despotically and endangering Venezuela’s democracy. Other clerics have been critical of Chavez’s populist policies and close relations with communist-led Cuba.

Chavez, for his part, has labeled the church “a tumor” in Venezuelan society, two-thirds of which is Catholic.

Urosa Savino, who took over the Archdiocese of Caracas in November, has tried to tone down the rhetoric, saying priests should refrain from voicing political opinions during religious functions. As a result, his nomination as cardinal could be seen as something of a balancing element in the Venezuelan church.

Urosa Savino was the only Latin American named, whereas Benedict tapped three Asians _ an indication that Benedict wants to “put a greater emphasis on the church in Asia where the church is in fact growing a lot,” the Rev. John Wauck, a professor of literature at the Holy Heart University in Rome, told AP Television News.

Both Americans on the list have extensive experience with the clerical sex abuse scandal that has roiled the church in the United States, though victims have not always been happy with their performance.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said last year that Levada had been “slow to act, harsh to victims and committed to secrecy” in responding to molestation claims as archbishop of Portland, Ore., and then San Francisco.

Levada responded that the criticism was off the mark. At the Vatican, he is now in charge of reviewing all sex abuse cases.

O’Malley was praised for his efforts to heal the wounds in the Boston Archdiocese after Cardinal Bernard Law was pressured to resign over his handling of abuse allegations. O’Malley helped orchestrate an $85 million settlement with more than 500 victims, though a new group of about 200 people claiming abuse say he hasn’t treated their claims with enough urgency.

O’Malley said Wednesday he was “deeply humbled and honored” to be elevated to cardinal.

Some analysts were surprise that Benedict tapped two Americans, since they already have a comparatively high number of cardinals in their ranks: 15 including Wednesday’s announcements.

By naming 12 voting age cardinals, Benedict assured that by the March 24 consistory there would be 120 cardinal electors _ the limit set by Pope Paul VI in 1973.

Cardinals have been the sole electors of the pontiff for nearly 1,000 years and it remains their most important job. For centuries, they have chosen the pope from their own ranks, as they did last April 19 when they tapped Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to be the next pope.