There are currently 135 cardinals who are under age 80 and eligible to vote in the conclave, hailing from 71 different countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history. Already two have formally told the Holy See that they cannot attend for health reasons, bringing the number of men who will enter the Sistine Chapel down to 133.
“We must look at all five continents,” Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia, said Monday as cardinals met ahead of the conclave. “The Holy Spirit looks at them all.”
A two-thirds majority is needed to be elected pope, meaning that if the number of electors holds at 133, the winner must secure 89 votes.
“We support whoever is the best person,” Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh said. ”We don’t choose a pope based on continent, based on race, based on language.”
The countries with the most electors are: Italy (17), the United States (10), Brazil (7), France and Spain (5 each), Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal (4 each).
Here is a regional breakdown of the full 135 cardinal electors, according to Vatican statistics and following the Vatican’s geographic grouping.
Europe: 53. (An elector who says he's skipping the conclave is from Spain, so the actual number of Europeans is expected to be 52.)
Asia (including the Middle East): 23
Africa: 18. (Another elector who says he's skipping the conclave is from Kenya, so the number of Africans is expected to be 17.)
South America: 17
North America: 16 (of whom 10 are American, 4 are Canadian and 2 are Mexican)
Central America: 4
Oceania: 4 (1 each from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga)
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