VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI named six new cardinals on Wednesday, adding prelates from Lebanon, the Philippines, Nigeria, Colombia, India and the United States to the ranks of senior churchmen who will elect his successor.

Among them is Archbishop James Harvey, the American prefect of the papal household whom the pope also named archpriest of a Roman basilica.

As prefect, Harvey was the direct superior of the pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was convicted Oct. 6 of stealing the pope’s private papers and leaking them to a reporter in the greatest Vatican security breach in modern times. The Vatican spokesman denied Harvey was being removed from the Vatican due to the scandal.

Benedict, 85, announced the new cardinals during his weekly general audience and said they would be formally elevated Nov. 24. The nominations help even out the geographic distribution of cardinals, which had tilted heavily toward Europe in the last few consistories and Italy in particular.

With the new cardinals installed Nov. 24, there will be 120 “princes” of the church under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Europe still has the most, with 62. But with the new additions, the College of Cardinals is a tad more multinational: Latin America will have 21; North America, 14; Africa, 11; Asia, 11; and Oceana, one.

In the past, prelates in line for the red hats worn by cardinals have sometimes had to wait if too many were chosen for the Vatican ceremony. At six, though, the consistory will be the smallest in years.