Cardinal electors in the 2025 conclave
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The papal conclave of 2025 was convened to elect a pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, to succeed Francis following his death on 21 April 2025. In accordance with the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthdays on the day on which the Holy See became vacant (in this case, those who were born on or after 21 April 1945) were eligible to participate in the conclave.[1] Although not a formal requirement, the cardinal electors have almost always elected the pope from among their number. The election was carried out by secret ballot (Latin: per scrutinium).[1]
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Of the 252 members of the College of Cardinals at the time of Francis's death, 135 cardinal electors were eligible to participate in the subsequent conclave.[2] Two cardinal electors did not attend, decreasing the number of participants to 133.[3][4] The required two-thirds supermajority needed to elect a pope was 89 votes.[a][1]
Of the 133 cardinal electors in attendance, 5 were cardinal bishops, 108 were cardinal priests, and 20 were cardinal deacons; 5 were created cardinals by Pope John Paul II, 20 by Pope Benedict XVI, and 108 by Pope Francis; 29 worked in the service of the Holy See (such as in the Roman Curia), 79 were in pastoral ministry outside Rome, and 26 were retired. The oldest cardinal elector was Carlos Osoro Sierra, at the age of 79, and the youngest was Mykola Bychok, at the age of 45. Another 116 cardinals were ineligible to participate in the conclave for reasons of age, the youngest of whom was George Alencherry, who had turned 80 on 19 April.[b][2]
The cardinal electors entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave on 7 May 2025.[10] On 8 May, after four ballots over two days, they elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, who took the papal name Leo XIV.[11]
Cardinal electors
The College of Cardinals is divided into three orders – cardinal bishops (CB), cardinal priests (CP), and cardinal deacons (CD) – with formal precedence in that sequence. This determines the order in which the cardinal electors process into the conclave, take the oath, and cast their ballots.[1] For cardinal bishops (except the Eastern Catholic patriarchs), the dean of the College of Cardinals is first in precedence, followed by the vice-dean,[c] and then by the remainder in order of appointment as cardinal bishops. For cardinal bishops who are Eastern Catholic patriarchs, for cardinal priests, and for cardinal deacons, precedence is determined by the date of the consistory in which they were created cardinals and then by the order in which they appeared in the official announcement or bulletin.
Five of the cardinal electors were from the Eastern Catholic Churches: Louis Raphaël I Sako (Chaldean Church), Baselios Cleemis (Syro-Malankara Church), Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel (Ethiopian Church), Mykola Bychok (Ukrainian Greek Church), and George Koovakad (Syro-Malabar Church). Two Eastern Catholic cardinals were the first cardinals from their respective sui iuris churches ever to participate in a papal conclave: Chaldean Patriarch Sako,[13][d] and Ethiopian Archbishop Souraphiel.[e] The senior cardinal bishop, the senior cardinal priest, the senior cardinal deacon, and the junior cardinal deacon, who were assigned specific roles in the conclave, such as preciding over the conclave itself (the senior cardinal bishop) or announcing the election of the pope,[1] were, respectively, Pietro Parolin, Vinko Puljić, Dominique Mamberti, and George Koovakad. The camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, who was in charge of administering the Holy See during its vacancy, was Kevin Farrell.[1] Timothy Radcliffe was the only cardinal elector who was not a bishop.[18]
The table below is sorted by default in order of precedence of the cardinal electors, and contains information as of 21 April 2025, the date on which the Holy See became vacant upon Pope Francis's death. All cardinals listed were members of the Latin Church unless otherwise stated. Cardinals belonging to institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life are indicated by the relevant post-nominal letters. Cardinals in pastoral ministry are classified under the country in which their respective dioceses are located, although they may be citizens of another country.
Not in attendance
Vinko Puljić initially announced that he did not plan to attend the conclave because of his health,[135] but later decided to participate after receiving medical clearance.[136]
| Rank | Name | Country | Born | Order | Consistory | Office | Reason for absence | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio Cañizares Llovera | Spain | 15 October 1945 (age 79) |
CP | 24 March 2006 Benedict XVI |
Archbishop emeritus of Valencia | Health | [4][137] |
| 2 | John Njue | Kenya | 1 January 1946[t] (age 79) |
CP | 24 November 2007 Benedict XVI |
Archbishop emeritus of Nairobi | Health[u] | [4][138] |
Cardinal electors by continent and country
The 133 cardinal electors in attendance represented 70 countries on all six inhabited continents. The countries with the greatest numbers of cardinal electors were Italy (seventeen), the United States (ten), and Brazil (seven). The statistics for the global distribution of Catholics in the table below are sourced from the 2023 edition of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (Statistical Yearbook of the Church), published in 2025.[141]
 | |
|---|---|
| Region | Number |
Italy |
17 |
Rest of Europe |
35 |
North America |
20 |
South America |
17 |
Asia |
23 |
Oceania |
4 |
Africa |
17 |
| Total | 133 |
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 7
- 10
- 17
| Continent | Number | Percentage | Percentage of global Catholic population (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 17 | 12.8% | 20.0% |
| North America* | 20 | 15.0% | 20.4% |
| South America | 17 | 12.8% | 27.4% |
| Asia | 23 | 17.3% | 11.0% |
| Europe | 52 | 39.1% | 20.4% |
| Oceania | 4 | 3.0% | 0.8% |
| Total | 133 | 100.0% | 100.0% |
See also
Notes
- Since the promulgation of Romano Pontifici eligendo (1975),[5] there has been a nominal maximum of 120 cardinal electors in a conclave, a rule reaffirmed in Universi Dominici gregis (1996).[1] The 2025 conclave was the first since the introduction of this maximum in which there have been more than 120 eligible cardinal electors.[3][6] Many canon lawyers took the opinion that the pope is not bound by this rule when choosing to appoint cardinal electors, and all eligible electors retain the right to participate in a conclave notwithstanding the nominal maximum.[6][7] On 30 April 2025, the Congregation of Cardinals confirmed that all eligible cardinal electors would be able to participate in the forthcoming conclave.[8]
- Giovanni Angelo Becciu, despite being under the age of 80, resigned the rights and privileges of a cardinal in 2020, making him ineligible to participate in the conclave as an elector. His exclusion was confirmed by the Congregation of Cardinals on 30 April 2025.[8][9]
- Neither the dean (Giovanni Battista Re) nor the vice-dean (Leonardo Sandri) were under the age of 80 and eligible to participate in the conclave.[12]
- Patriarch Sako is the second Chaldean Catholic patriarch to be made cardinal, the first being his predecessor Emmanuel III Delly who was created cardinal-patriarch in 2007 but was never a cardinal-elector having already turned 80.[14][15][16]
- Cardinal Souraphiel is the second Ethiopian cardinal, the first being his immediate predecessor Paulos Tzadua who turned 80 before having an opportunity to participate in a conclave.[17]
- This person holds multiple citizenship.
- Ouédraogo's actual date of birth is unknown. In the 2024 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the annual directory of the Holy See, his birth date was revised from 25 January 1945 to 31 December, a placeholder date used by the Burkina Faso government. Ouédraogo adopted 25 January as his date of birth "at random" to enrol in a health-insurance programme in 1973.[54]
- López Romero was born in Spain and had served as a bishop in Morocco since 2018.
- Marengo was born in Italy and had served as a bishop in Mongolia since 2020.
- The jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, based in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City in East Jerusalem, is multinational and encompasses Cyprus, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. In its statistical report of the College of Cardinals, the Holy See Press Office lists Pizzaballa's country as "Jerusalem".[142] Pizzaballa was born in Italy and has served as a bishop in Jerusalem since 2016.
- Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China.
- Bustillo was born in Spain and had served as a bishop in France since 2021.
- Nemet was born in Serbia into an ethnically Hungarian family and describes himself as Hungarian. He has worked in Serbia since 2008.
- Vesco was born in France and had served as a bishop in Algeria since 2012.
- Mathieu was born in Belgium and had served as a bishop in Iran since 2021.
- Bychok was born in Ukraine and had served as a bishop in Australia since 2020.
- Farrell was born in Ireland, was incardinated as a priest in the United States in 1984 and served as a bishop there from 2001 to 2016.
- Czerny was born in Czechoslovakia (in the present-day Czech Republic) and emigrated to Canada as a child.
- Radcliffe was granted a dispensation by Pope Francis not to be ordained a bishop before being created a cardinal.[18][134]
- In 2025, the Holy See Press Office's list of cardinal electors and information page for Njue gave his date of birth as 1 January 1946, but previously stated that he was "born in 1944"[138] or on 31 December 1944.[139]
- Njue said in an interview on 5 May 2025 that he had not received a formal invitation to participate in the conclave, but Philip Anyolo, Archbishop of Nairobi, clarified that Njue was unable to travel to Rome because of his health.[140]