VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named his first batch of cardinals Sunday, choosing 19 men from around the world, including the developing nations of Haiti and Burkina Faso, in line with his belief the church must pay more attention to the poor.

But advocates for victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy said they felt let down that Francis didn’t unequivocally embrace their calls that prelates who hadn’t made a clean break with past practices of covering up pedophile behavior never be promoted.

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Pope Francis reads the list of 19 new Cardinals during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican on Sunday. The Associated Press

Francis read out the 19 names to a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square.

Sixteen of the appointees are younger than 80, meaning they would be eligible to elect the next pope, which is a cardinal’s most important task, after the Feb. 22 ceremony to formally install them.

Since his election in March as the first pontiff from Latin America, the pope has broken tradition after tradition in terms of protocol and style at the Vatican. But in Sunday’s list, Francis stuck to the church’s rule of having no more than 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next pontiff.

The College of Cardinals is 13 shy of that 120-mark among eligible-to-vote members. In addition, three cardinals will turn 80 by May. That means Francis chose the exact number of new cardinals needed to bring the voting ranks up to 120 during the next few months.

Some appointments were expected, including that of the German head of the Vatican’s watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, Gerhard Ludwig Mueller. The U.S.-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the choice of Mueller, saying he had a “dreadful” record on children’s safety.

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