College of Cardinals - Members of The College of Cardinals

Members of The College of Cardinals

The following is the list of all living Cardinals as of 24 November 2012. Cardinals are shown in order of precedence, based on seniority by date of appointment. Paulo Evaristo Arns is the most senior member of the College by length of service (the Protopriest); he is the last surviving from the 1973 consistory. Angelo Sodano, however, has the highest precedence as a Cardinal Bishop as Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Cardinals who have reached the age of 80 are indicated with an asterisk (*). Eusebio Oscar Scheid will be the next Cardinal to lose, on 8 December 2012, his right to participate in a conclave. The oldest living Cardinal is currently Ersilio Tonini. There are now a total of 211 Cardinals, of whom 120 are aged under 80. Of the voting-age cardinals, 53 were appointed by Pope John Paul II, and 67 by Pope Benedict XVI.

All but thirteen of the Cardinals alive at the death of Pope John Paul II were appointed by him. Three of those thirteen were under 80 years old as of the day of John Paul II's death. One of those three, Joseph Ratzinger, was elected Pope in the resulting conclave and took the name Benedict XVI, another one (Jaime Sin) did not attend that conclave for health reasons and died shortly afterwards, and the third, William Wakefield Baum, turned 80 on 21 November 2006.

Most of the Cardinals are from the Latin Church, those who are from the Eastern Catholic Churches have their church explicitly indicated.

Within the College of Cardinals, there are three categories, ranked Cardinal Bishops, then Cardinal Priests, and finally Cardinal Deacons, within each category the Cardinals are ranked by seniority of appointment.

Despite these titles, in fact since the pontificate of Pope John XXIII almost all Cardinals who were not already bishops at the time their appointment was announced have been ordained bishops prior to the conclusion of the formal installation, though in the last years the Jesuit priests made cardinals when they are already over 80 have generally petitioned not to become bishops and have received permission in this sense.