Enter the electors

Today, all the cardinals of the Church received the official letter summoning them to Rome. Cardinal Sodano, as dean of the College of Cardinals, signed the letter. Cardinal Simonis, emeritus archbishop of Utrecht, was one of the cardinals who received the summons, although, like many others, he is already in Rome. The image below shows the letter in the hands of the cardinal, who won’t  be able to vote in the conclave, as he is over the age of 80. But all cardinals, elector or not, are expected to take their responsibilities in managing the goods and needs of the Church and the faithful during the sede vacante, as well as preparing for the conclave.Cardinal Sodano’s letter invites the cardinals to the first two General Congregations on Monday. A date for the conclave may be decided upon then, but that is by no means certain. All indications are that the cardinals want time to talk and think.

The electors number 117, although two of them have chosen to remain at home. So here they are, the 115 cardinal electors who will soon be entering the conclave, which they will not be leaving until they have elected a new Supreme Pontiff. As Emeritus Pope Benedict (how odd it is to write that!) said yesterday morning, the new Pope is among them.

A short primer on who’s who among the electors, ordered by precedence (and from left to right and top to bottom, starting at top left and ending at bottom right, in the collage above):

• Giovanni Cardinal Re, Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops
• Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State and Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church
• Antonios Cardinal Naguib, Patriarch emeritus of Alexandria of the Copts
• Béchara Cardinal Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites
• Godfried Cardinal Danneels, Archbishop emeritus of Mechelen-Brussels
• Joachim Cardinal Meisner, Archbishop of Köln
• Nicolás Cardinal López Rodríguez, Archbishop of Santo Domingo
• Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles
• Jaime Cardinal Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of Havana
• Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte, Archbishop emeritus of Montréal
• Vinko Cardinal Puljic, Archbishop of Vrhbosna
• Juan Cardinal Sandoval Íñiguez, Archbishop emeritus of Guadalajara
• Antonio Cardinal Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid
• Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi, Archbishop emeritus of Milan
• Polycarp Cardinal Pengo, Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam
• Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna
• Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico
• Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago
• Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, President of the Congregation for Catholic Education
• Crescenzio Cardinal Sepe, Archbishop of Naples
• Walter Cardinal Kasper, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
• Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect emeritus of the Congregation fo the Evangelisation of Peoples
• Geraldo Cardinal Agnelo, Archbishop emritus of São Salvador da Bahia
• Audrys Cardinal Backis, Archbishop of Vilnius
• Francisco Cardinal Errázuriz Ossa, Archbishop emritus of Santiago
• Julio Cardinal Terrazas Sandoval, Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra
• Wilfrid Cardinal Napier, Archbishop of Durban
• Oscar Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa
• Juan Cardinal Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima
• Cláudio Cardinal Hummes, Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Clergy
• Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires
• José Cardinal Policarpo, Patriarch of Lisbon
• Severino Cardinal Poletto, Archbishop of Turin
• Karl Cardinal Lehmann, Bishop of Mainz
• Angelo Cardinal Scola, Archbishop of Milan
• Anthony Cardinal Okogie, Archbishop emeritus of Lagos
• Gabriel Cardinal Zubeir Wako, Archbishop of Khartoum
• Carlos Cardinal Amigo Vallejo, Archbishop emeritus of Sevilla
• Justin Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia
• Ennio Cardinal Antonelli, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Family
• Peter Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
• Telesphore Cardinal Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi
• George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
• Josip Cardinal Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb
• Jean-Baptiste Cardinal Pham Minh Man, Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City
• Philippe Cardinal Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon
• Péter Cardinal Erdö, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest
• Marc Cardinal Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
• Agostino Cardinal Vallini, Archpriest of St. John Lateran
• Jorge Cardinal Urosa Savino, Archbishop of Caracas
• Jean-Pierre Cardinal Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux
• Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
• Seán Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston
• Stanislaw Cardinal Dziwisz, Archbishop of Kraków
• Carlo Cardinal Caffarra, Archbishop of Bologna
• Seán Cardinal Brady, Archbishop of Armagh
• Lluís Cardinal Martínez Sistach, Archbishop of Barcelona
• André Cardinal Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris
• Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa
• Théodore-Adrien Cardinal Sarr, Archbishop of Dakar
• Oswald Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay
• Francisco Cardinal Robles Ortega, Archbishop of Guadalajara
• Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston
• Odilo Cardinal Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo
• John Cardinal Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi
• Raúl Cardinal Vela Chiriboga, Archbishop emeritus of Quito
• Laurent Cardinal Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa
• Paolo Cardinal Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo
• Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington
• Raymundo Cardinal Assis, Archbishop of Aparecida
• Kazimierz Cardinal Nycz, Archbishop of Warsaw
• Albert Cardinal Patabendige Don, Archbishop of Colombo
• Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising
• George Cardinal Alencherry, Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabars
• Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto
• Dominik Cardinal Duka, Archbishop of Prague
• Willem Cardinal Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht
• Giuseppe Cardinal Betori, Archbishop of Florence
• Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York
• Rainer Cardinal Woelki, Archbishop of Berlin
• John Cardinal Tong Hon, Bishop of Hong Kong
• Baselios Cardinal Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars
• John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja
• Jesús Cardinal Salazar Gómez, Archbishop of Bogotá
• Luis Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila
• Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue
• Attilio Cardinal Nicora, President of the Financial Information Authority
• William Cardinal Levada, Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
• Franc Cardinal Rode,  Prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
• Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches
• Giovanni Cardinal Lajolo, President emeritus of the Governorate of the Vatican City State
• Paul Cardinal Cordes, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”
• Angelo Cardinal Comastri, Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica
• Stanislaw Cardinal Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity
• Raffaele Cardinal Farina, Librarian emeritus of the Vatican Apostolic Library
• Angelo Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints
• Robert Cardinal Sarah, President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”
• Francesco Cardinal Monterisi, Archpriest emeritus of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls
• Raymond Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
• Kurt Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
• Paolo Cardinal Sardi, Partron of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta
• Mauro Cardinal Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy
• Velasio Cardinal De Paolis, Pontifical Delegate for the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ
• Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture
• Fernando Cardinal Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples
• Manuel Cardinal Monteiro de Castro, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary
• Santos Cardinal Abril y Castelló, Archpriest of St. Mary Major
• Antonio Cardinal Vegliò, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
• Giuseppe Cardinal Bertello, President of the Governorate of the Vatican City State
• Francesco Cardinal Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts
• João Cardinal Bráz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
• Edwin Cardinal O’Brien, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
• Domenico Cardinal Calcagno, President of the Adminstration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See
• Giuseppe Cardinal Versaldi, President of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See
• James Cardinal Harvey, Archpriest of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls

Who we will see in white on the balcony of St. Peter’s sometime later this month remains anyone’s guess. Only Our Lord knows and, as Cardinal Pell said, it is up to the electors to find out.

Photo credit: [1] RKK.nl, [2] collage my own.

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