(ZENIT News / Rome, 02.05.2025).- Not only will the Conclave begin on Wednesday, May 7, but the first vote will also take place.
108 of the 133 Electors during the 2025 Conclave were appointed Cardinals by Pope Francis. Many of them come from geographically distant locations in relation to Rome and from numerically small dioceses and Catholic communities. The «peripheral» aspect played in favour of these individuals and their communities, because Pope Francis saw value in this factor.
However, dioceses with a large Catholic population were left not only without a Cardinal but also «without representation» in the Conclave. Although it is understood that the appointment of a Cardinal does not stem from the number of Catholics in a diocese, it can also be seen that many Catholics may or may not feel represented in a Conclave precisely for this reason: because a particular Cardinal represents them in some way. And the more Catholics there are, the more those represented.
Following the «representative» criterion of Catholics, for the 2025 Conclave there will be an overrepresentation of Cardinals from countries such as France (5), Spain (5), Argentina (4), Portugal (4), Canada (4), the United Kingdom (3), and Japan (2). The most recent data shows that the countries with the largest Catholic populations in the world are: 1) Brazil, 2) Mexico, 3) the Philippines, 4) the United States, 5) Italy, 6) Congo, and 7) Colombia.
In light of this data, the 10 Cardinals from the United States, the 7 from Brazil, and the 4 from Poland are more understandable.
However, countries with a larger Catholic population, such as Mexico, have only two Cardinal Electors, while Colombia and Congo have only one each. Other Catholic-majority countries with only one Cardinal are Chile, Cuba, Peru, Kenya, and Nigeria. The contrast is even more evident when considering the zero Cardinal Electors in other countries with significant Catholic populations and traditions, such as Lebanon, Venezuela, Ireland, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Austria, Bolivia, El Salvador, and the Czech Republic.
For the 2025 Conclave, large world dioceses that are relevant not only for their history but also for the number of Catholics are not represented: Monterrey (Mexico), Paris (France), Havana (Cuba), Milan (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Medellin (Colombia) and Kiev (Ukraine).
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