Who are the cardinal electors?
All cardinals under 80 years of age when the pope dies have the right to vote for the next pope. Currently, there are 117 cardinal electors, all but three appointed by John Paul II. The average age of the electors is 71.7. About 49.6 percent are from Europe — 17.1 percent from Italy; 22.2 percent from the rest of Western Europe; 10.3 percent from Eastern Europe. About 37.3 percent are from the Third World. Asia and Africa have 9.4 percent each; Latin America 17.9 percent; Oceania, 1.7 percent. The United States has 9.4 percent (not counting Cardinal Husar, who gave up his U.S. citizenship after returning to Ukraine), second only to Italy; and 2.6 percent are from Canada. Curial cardinals make up about 23.9 percent of the electors. The maximum number of cardinals was set at 70 by Sixtus V in 1586. John XXIII ignored this limit and the college grew to over 80 cardinals. In 1970 Paul VI reformed the College of Cardinals by increasing the number of electors to 120, not counting those 80 ye
