Who’re the cardinals choosing the following pope?

Pope Francis’ loss of life has set centuries-old equipment into movement throughout the Roman Catholic Church: From world wide, cardinals are converging on the Vatican, first to mourn and honor Francis, and later, to solid their votes for his successor.

However the composition of right this moment’s Faculty of Cardinals — and the electors who will type the all-important conclave — is in contrast to any that got here earlier than.

Here is a quick information:

There are 135 cardinal electors

Not each cardinal can vote within the conclave: Those that select the following pope have to be youthful than 80 years outdated, as an illustration. Of the 252 cardinals on the time of Francis’ loss of life, 135 are electors.

Francis appointed 108 of the 135 cardinal electors, in keeping with the Vatican’s tally.

Church guidelines name for conclaves to start 15 to twenty days after a pope dies or resigns. Cardinals can begin the proceedings earlier than the 15-day mark, however provided that all electors are current.

Faculty of Cardinals is not majority-European

Underneath Pope Francis, the Faculty of Cardinals got here nearer to reflecting the worldwide Catholic Church, a becoming legacy for the primary pope from South America.

With the present composition of the faculty, this shall be “the least European conclave in history,” Gregg Gassman, a librarian who edits the Pontifacts podcast, instructed NPR.

Francis reached far and vast to offer international locations equivalent to Haiti, Laos and Rwanda their first-ever cardinals. His papacy additionally noticed Asia’s illustration within the Faculty of Cardinals develop to 17%, with 23 electors — second solely to Europe.

A minimum of 70 international locations now have elector cardinals, the Vatican says, together with 10 from the U.S. In distinction, the 2013 conclave that elected Francis was made up of cardinals from 48 international locations, in keeping with the Catholic Information Service.

Europe accounts for about 40% of the electors, whereas having simply over 20% of the world’s Catholic group, the Vatican stated in March. Its 53 electors are greater than twice the variety of some other geographic area, however the make-up of the brand new conclave will nonetheless replicate a century of change.

Solely Europeans participated in the 1922 conclave, Gassman stated. Of the 4 cardinals who have been within the U.S. or Canada on the time, he added, three could not get to Rome rapidly sufficient by boat earlier than the conclave began, and the fourth opted to not journey.

“They had to extend the rules to allow for more travel time” after that conclave, Gassman stated. “And then as soon as they did that, airplanes became more of a thing.”

How the conclave will play out

The 2025 conclave guarantees to be a posh gathering, in keeping with specialists like Massimo Faggioli, a church historian and professor at Villanova College exterior Philadelphia.

“It’s really a much more complicated chemistry this time,” Faggioli instructed NPR’s Leila Fadel. “Because also, there’s a very complicated international situation which affects different cardinals, different local churches in different ways. So this time it’s even more difficult than usual to make predictions, even on the agenda of the conclave.”

It is particularly laborious, a number of specialists instructed NPR, to foretell how the opinions of a traditionally numerous group of electors will coalesce into selecting who will succeed Pope Francis.

For one factor, there are considerations that the dimensions of the Faculty of Cardinals, with greater than 130 electors, might make it tough to succeed in a consensus.

“They don’t know each other. They rarely meet, and only for some celebrations” that do not final lengthy, stated Kurt Martens, extraordinary professor of canon legislation on the College of Canon Regulation on the Catholic College of America in Washington, D.C. The end result, he added, is that factions is likely to be extra more likely to spring up and divide the conclave.

“What the conclave and the next pope cannot do is to ignore and deny the changing features of global Catholicism, which is much less European, much less white, less North American and more Global South,” Villanova’s Faggioli stated, “meaning not necessarily liberal but surely much more critical of capitalism as it is today.”

Deans have a high-profile platform

The job of calling cardinals to the Vatican and overseeing the conclave falls to the dean of the Faculty of Cardinals. Within the movie Conclave, Ralph Fiennes portrays the highly effective determine.

Deans wield vital affect over the gathering, together with presiding over a particular Mass and delivering a homily wherein they’ll recommend themes and priorities for electors to contemplate. Some deans have even been chosen as pope, together with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who grew to become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

The present dean, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, is 91. Due to his age, he’ll have fun the high-profile Mass, however neither Re nor the vice dean, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 81, will be part of the conclave. It should as an alternative be overseen by probably the most senior elector: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was Francis’ secretary of state.

For the cardinal electors, “it’s an enormous responsibility” to decide on the following pope, Catholic College’s Martens stated. “It’s an enormous tension that is on you.”

Uncertainty is a time-honored a part of the method, Martens added.

“Those who hope that they will become pope — remember there’s a saying, the one who enters the conclave as pope comes out as a cardinal, so the favorite never wins.”