A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. They are titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, thereby serving as the primary advisors to the Bishop of Rome. Cardinals are created by the pope and typically hold the title for life. Collectively, they constitute the College of Cardinals. The most solemn responsibility of the cardinals is to elect a new pope in a conclave, almost always from among themselves, when the Holy See is vacant. During the period between a pope's death or resignation and the election of his successor, the day-to-day governance of the Holy See is in the hands of the College of Cardinals. The right to participate in a conclave is limited to cardinals who have not reached the age of 80 years by the day the vacancy occurs. In addition, cardinals collectively participate in papal consistories, in which matters of importance to the Church are considered and new cardinals may be created. Cardinals of working age are also appointed to roles overseeing dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the central administration of the Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Benedict chose to be known as "Pope emeritus" upon his resignation, and he retained this title until his death in 2022.
The College of Cardinals, more formally called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. As of 7 December 2024, there are 253 cardinals, of whom 140 are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appointed by the pope for life but eligibility to vote ceases at the age of 80.
Crescenzio Sepe is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Naples from 2006 to 2020. He served in the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2001 to 2006. He was made a cardinal in 2001. Before that he spent 25 years in increasingly important positions in the Roman Curia.
In pectore is a term used in the Catholic Church for an action, decision, or document which is meant to be kept secret. It is most often used when there is a papal appointment to the College of Cardinals without a public announcement of the name of that cardinal. The pope reserves that name to himself. The Italian-language version of the phrase – in petto – is sometimes used. When the name of a new cardinal is announced or made public, it is sometimes said to be published.
Leonardo Sandri is an Argentine prelate of the Catholic Church who has been a cardinal since November 2007 and vice dean of the College of Cardinals since January 2020. He was prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches from 2007 to 2022. He served in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1974 to 1991 in several overseas assignments, including as a permanent observer of the Holy See before the Organization of American States from 1989 to 1991, and in Rome as Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State from 1999 to 2007.
Eugênio de Araújo Sales was a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, having been elevated by Pope Paul VI on 28 April 1969. He served as archbishop of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro for thirty years until his resignation was accepted in 2001, when he had already passed the maximum age for voting in a papal conclave. He was the Cardinal Protopriest of the Holy Roman Church and also the longest-serving living Cardinal of the Catholic Church from 16 February 2009 until his death.
Achille Silvestrini was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served in the Vatican diplomatic corps, either in Rome or abroad, from 1953 to 1990, and later as Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches from 1991 to 2000.
Francesco Coccopalmerio is an Italian cardinal. He was president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts from his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 15 February 2007 until his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on 7 April 2018. He spent his early years in the Archdiocese of Milan and became an auxiliary bishop in 1993. He moved to the Roman Curia in 2000.
Stanisław Marian Ryłko is a Polish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He held positions in the Roman Curia beginning in 1987 and was president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 2003 to 2016. He was made a cardinal in 2007. He has been Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore since 28 December 2016.
Angelo Comastri is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica from 2006 to 2021, and Vicar General for the Vatican City State and President of the Fabric of Saint Peter from 2005 to 2021. He previously served as Bishop of Massa Marittima-Piombino (1990–1994) and Territorial Prelate of Loreto (1996–2005). He was named a cardinal in 2007.
The history of the Roman Curia, the administrative apparatus responsible for managing the affairs of the Holy See and the Catholic Church, can be traced to the 11th century when informal methods of administration began to take on a more organized structure and eventually a bureaucratic form. The Curia has undergone a series of renewals and reforms, including a major overhaul following the loss of the Papal States, which fundamentally altered the range and nature of the Curia's responsibilities, removing many of an entirely secular nature.
Santos Abril y Castelló is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church. After a career in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See, he held a number of positions in the Roman Curia and from 2011 to 2016 was Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
In the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, considered as an advisory body for the pope, is one of the ways in which the bishops render cooperative assistance to him in exercising his office. It is described in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as "a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet at fixed times to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world."
Pope John XXIII created 52 cardinals in five consistories. Beginning at his first consistory, he expanded the size of the College beyond the limit of seventy established in 1586 and on several occasions announced that further increases should be expected. It rose to 88 in January 1961. He named three additional cardinals in pectore, that is, secretly, but did not reveal their names before his death.
In sixteen years, Pope Pius XI created 76 cardinals in 17 consistories. Though he created 18 cardinals at a consistory in 1935, he typically created very few cardinals at one time, holding small, frequent consistories, some of them less than six months apart. He held a consistory in 1929 to create just one cardinal, and created just two on eight occasions.
Pope Paul VI created 143 cardinals in six consistories. His predecessor Pope John XXIII had disregarded the centuries-long tradition that limited the College of Cardinals to seventy members, increasing its size to as high as 88 in 1961. Paul continued this practice, and with his appointments the College grew to 103 in 1965, 118 in 1967, 134 in 1969. He then instituted a new rule that diminished the significance of the size of the College. In November 1970 he announced that as of 1 January 1971 only a cardinal who had not yet reached his 80th birthday would be allowed to enter a conclave. When the 1973 consistory increased the size of the College to 145, the number of those under 80 who constituted the cardinal electors was 117. In 1975, he set the maximum number of cardinal electors at 120. Each of his later consistories in 1976 and 1977 brought the number of electors to the full complement of 120.
Pope Benedict XVI created 90 cardinals in five consistories. With three of those consistories he respected the limit on the number of cardinal electors set at 120 in 1973, though sometimes exceeded by his predecessors. He exceeded that limit at the other two consistories, reaching as high as 125 in 2012.
Pope Francis has created cardinals at ten consistories held at roughly annual intervals beginning in 2014, most recently on 7 December 2024. The cardinals created by Francis include 163 cardinals from 76 countries, 25 of which had never been represented in the College of Cardinals. His appointments include the first Scandinavian since the Reformation, the first from Goa since an episcopal see was established there in 1533, the first from Latin America's indigenous peoples, the first from India's Dalit class, and the first active head of a religious congregation.
Angelo De Donatis is an Italian Catholic prelate. He has been Major Penitentiary since April 2024. He was Cardinal Vicar and Archpriest of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran from 2017 to 2024.
