s are senior ecclesiastical leaders of the Catholic Church, almost always ordained bishops and generally holding important roles within the church, such as governing prominent archdioceses or managing dicasteries within the Roman Curia. They are created in consistories by the pope and one of their foremost duties is the election of a new pope when the Holy See is vacant, following the death or the resignation of the reigning pontiff. The body of all cardinals is collectively known as the College of Cardinals. Under current ecclesiastical law, as defined by the apostolic constitutionUniversi Dominici gregis, only cardinals who have not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which the Holy See falls vacant are eligible to participate in a papal conclave to elect a new pope. The same apostolic constitution also specifies a maximum of 120 cardinal electors who can participate in a conclave; this number has regularly been temporarily exceeded, although never at the time of a conclave. Cardinals may also be created in pectore, in which case they are not publicly revealed by the pope; they do not enjoy the privileges of a cardinal until their names are published. The creations of any such cardinals who have not been revealed at the pope's death or resignation automatically lapse. there are 221 cardinals, 122 of whom are cardinal electors. The most recent consistory for the creation of cardinals was held on, when Pope Francis created thirteen cardinals, including ten cardinal electors. Agostino Vallini was the most recent cardinal elector to turn 80, on ; Lorenzo Baldisseri will be the next cardinal elector to turn 80, on. Zenon Grocholewski was the most recent cardinal to die, on, at the age of.
Living cardinals
The College of Cardinals is divided into three orders, with official precedence in the following sequence, generally reflecting seniority and honour:
Cardinal bishops : the six cardinals who are assigned the titles of the seven suburbicarian dioceses in the vicinity of Rome, appointed from the other cardinals by the pope, as well as cardinals who are patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches. The two most senior cardinal bishops of the College, elected by the cardinal bishops from among themselves and approved by the pope, are termed the dean and the vice-dean, currently Giovanni Battista Re and Leonardo Sandri, respectively; the latter is also the senior cardinal bishop among those who are cardinal electors.
Cardinal priests : bishops typically in charge of dioceses, as well as former cardinal deacons who have opted for the order. The most senior cardinal priest of the College is termed the protopriest, currently Michael Michai Kitbunchu; among the cardinal electors, the senior cardinal priest is Vinko Puljić.
Cardinal deacons : bishops who hold curial or diplomatic roles, as well as other clergy, including priests granted dispensation not to be consecrated bishops. They have the option of becoming cardinal priests after having been cardinal deacons for ten years. The most senior cardinal deacon of the College is termed the protodeacon, currently Renato Raffaele Martino; among the cardinal electors, the senior cardinal deacon is Robert Sarah and the junior cardinal deacon is Michael Czerny.
For cardinal bishops, except for those who are Eastern Catholic patriarchs, the dean is first in precedence, followed by the vice-dean and then, in order of appointment as cardinal bishops, by the remainder. 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. By default, this table is sorted by order of precedence, as denoted by the column. All cardinals are of the Latin Church unless otherwise stated. Cardinals belonging to institutes of consecrated life or to societies of apostolic life are indicated by the respective post-nominal letters.
Cardinals to be created on ⟨date with ⟩
In a consistory on, Pope ⟨name with ⟩ is scheduled to create ⟨X⟩ cardinal, including ⟨Y⟩ cardinal elector. The orders to which they will belong are yet to be announced; they are listed here as in the announcement on.
Former cardinals
In addition, as of 2018 there are three living former cardinals, listed here in order of their departure from the College:
Theodore Edgar McCarrick, created, ceased, upon his resignation from the College of Cardinals, following allegations of sexual misconduct
Demographics of the College of Cardinals
This table shows the number of living cardinals created by each pope and belonging to each order. By default, it is sorted by order of pontificate, as denoted by the column. Currently, of all cardinals are eligible to participate in a papal conclave. The number of votes required to be elected pope with a two-thirds supermajority, if all 122 cardinal electors were to participate, would be.
While most cardinals belong to the Latin Church, which encompasses the vast majority of Catholics, a small number of cardinals belong to one of the twenty-three autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches. Currently, there are seven Eastern Catholic cardinals, including four cardinal electors, belonging to seven particular churchessui iuris:
Currently, there are 47 cardinals, including 27 cardinal electors, belonging to 24 institutes of consecrated life or societies of apostolic life. Common names, if different, are given in brackets.
Cardinals by continent
For the purposes of this article, countries are grouped into continents generally according to the regions of the United Nations geoscheme; for the Americas region, North America comprises the Northern America, the Central America and the Caribbean subregions, while South America comprises the remaining subregion of the same name.
Cardinals by country
Currently, there are 89 countries that have cardinals, 67 of which have cardinal electors. The countries with the greatest percentages of all cardinals are Italy, jointly, Spain and the United States and Brazil. Among the cardinal electors, the countries with the greatest percentages are Italy, the United States and Spain.
