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The Consistory of this November 28, the seventh summoned by Pope Francis, raises the attendance at the College of Cardinals to 229 (101 non-voters). News and data from an institution that is 900 years old.
Alessandro De Carolis, Silvonei José – Vatican News
For a few centuries there had been 30. Then Sixtus V in 1586 raised them to 70, but nothing to do with the breadth we know today, a group of people who also geographically represent the evangelicals “ends of the earth.” The College of Cardinals in its current size and composition is a gradually maturing choice in the 20th century. It was John XXIII who first “violated” the historical limit of Sixtus V, so much so that the dwellings that at the end of the last pontificate between the 19th and 20th centuries had fluctuated by an average of 60 members, at the death of Pope Roncalli there were 82 and between they have unpublished somatic features, with the first Filipino, Japanese, and African cardinals.
“Global” University
A few years passed and Paul VI completed the work. He created 143 cardinals, further expanding the “latitude” of their origins (the first New Zealander, the first Malagasy, the first Sinhalese, etc.), determined the place of the Eastern Patriarchs in the College and, above all, established the threshold even in force today. 80 years to vote in a possible conclave. At the death of Pope Montini there were 129 cardinals, a number that is the prelude to a new change made by John Paul II. With Pope Wojtyla, the College of Cardinals has become a complete expression of the world and the 231 cardinals from some seventy countries created by him in nine Consistories (including 42 in the 2001 Consistory, a record for the Church), there are still 16 Cardinals voting out of 65 present in the group, the oldest of whom is Jozef Tomko, 96, raised in 1985.
Older Younger
The Pontificate of Benedict XVI also saw the entry of 90 Cardinals into five Consistories at the College. Among those who obtained the hat of Pope Emeritus there are currently 39 voters and 30 non-voters, including the oldest of the whole group, the 96-year-old Frenchman Albert Vanhoye, who was created a cardinal in 2006. Pope Francis belongs to the creation of the The youngest living cardinal, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, only 49 years old in 2016 at the time of publication, who, in the garb of Metropolitan Bangui, is also the first cardinal born in the Central African Republic.
Francisco, cardinals and peripheries
As of November 28, Francis will have presided over his seventh session and created a total of 101 cardinals, 73 of whom are currently among those entitled to vote in a potential Conclave. For the Pope of the “peripheries”, this Saturday’s convocation also shows the beginning and the return. The first case belongs to Brunei and Rwanda – countries that make their historic entry to the College – the second case belongs to Malta, which was not represented for a short time, that is, since the death of Cardinal Prosper Grech in December 2019. The pontificate de Francisco also includes other records.
Among others, that of the cardinal seats in countries that have never had it (in addition to the aforementioned Central African Republic, Brunei and Rwanda, also Haiti, Dominica, Burma, Panama, Cape Verde, Tonga, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Lesotho , Mali, Sweden, Laos, El Salvador, Luxembourg), the first African-American cardinal (Washington Metropolitan Wilton Gregory), the first-born after the Council (Nzapalainga), the first convert to Catholicism since the time of Jean-Marie Lustiger (Bishop of Stockholm Anders Arborelius, Lutheran by birth).
Curiosity
Some names are linked to some statistical curiosities. For example, 91-year-old Thai Michael Michai Kitbunchu, emeritus from Bangkok, has been part of the College of Cardinals for the longest time (37 years). A record of duration shared with New Zealander Thomas Stafford Williams, 90, an ordinary military emeritus of his country. They both received the cap from Pope Wojtyla in 1983.
Another data is related to the presence of religious families in the current College: there are 26, for a total of 51 cardinals (29 voters) who wear the habit of their Institute in purple. The most represented are the Salesians (9), followed by the Jesuits (7). It should be noted that with Father Mauro Gambetti, guardian of the Sacred Convent of Assisi, the Order of Conventual Franciscans also became part of the group of cardinals.
Also geography, as has been said, especially at the will of Pope Francis, continues to be redesigned, expanding the map of the College, which now reaches 90 countries represented, from Albania to Vietnam, with the largest group of Italian cardinals (47). , followed by the United States (15) and Spain (14). From the point of view of the continents, Europe has 106 cardinals among voters and non-voters, Africa 30, Asia 27. North America has 26, South America 25, Central America 9 and finally Oceania 6. Brazil has 9 cardinals , 4 voters and 5 non-voters: AGNELO Geraldo Majella; ASSIS Raymundo DAMASCENO; AVIZ João BRAZ from; ROCHA Sérgio; FALCÃO FREIRE José; HUMMES Cláudio; SCHEID Eusébio Oscar; SCHERER Odilo Pedro; TEMPESTA Orani João.
Portugal has 5, three of which are voters.
