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As Pope Francis has just created 21 new cardinals, the Vatican has made keeping track of their ranks easier than ever. On December 6, the Vatican launched a new “dashboard” that features an interactive map that allows users to browse the College of Cardinals and see how they are distributed throughout the world.
The College of Cardinals has many functions, from advising the pope to representing the Church in their respective countries. One of the most high-profile functions of the college, however, is to elect the next pope, upon the death or resignation of the current pope. A cardinal may take part in the papal elections up until they reach the age of 80, which is why even though there are 253 cardinals – a number that includes the 21 cardinals welcomed by Pope Francis on December 7 – only 140 are currently eligible to vote in the next papal conclave.
On the dashboard, users can see the breakdown of the eligibility of cardinals to elect the next pope on the new dashboard. It even shows the percentage of eligible cardinals for each geographical region; for example 47.8% of European cardinals, 62.1% of African cardinals, and 100% of those in Oceania are eligible to elect the next pope. This reveals that the cardinals of Asia and Africa tend to be younger than those of Europe.
The interactive map is outfitted with a number of filters that make sifting through the data all the easier. Searches can be refined by surname, birthdate, nationality, religious order, by the date of their elevation, and even by the popes who named them. The last of these offers an interesting perspective, as it shows that the majority of cardinals who may vote at the next papal enclave were named by Pope Francis (110), with just 24 remaining of age from Pope Benedict XVI’s selections, and just six cardinals named by Pope St. John Paul II remain below the age of 80.
Click here to explore the Vatican’s new interactive “dashboard” for the College of Cardinals.
And today we celebrate...