From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Feb 26: As many as 117 Cardinals, including a record five from India, are eligible to participate in the forthcoming conclave in Vatican to elect the new Pope to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who has announced his decision to retire with effect from February 28.
The number of Cardinal electors, who are eligible to participate in the Conclave to elect the new Pope, could go down due to illness and other factors as the Jakarta Cardinal Julius Darmaatamdja has already announced that he will not be able to travel to Rome due to ill-health.
Incidentally, among the five Indian Cardinals is Baselios Cleemis Catholicos Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum (Major Archdiocese - Syro-Malankara, who will be the youngest at 53 while most other prelates are aged above 70 and less than 80 years.
The next youngest Cardinal among the 117 Cardinal electors is 55-year-old Luis Antonio Tagle of Philippines.
The other four Indian Cardinals are: Ivan Dias (76), Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Telesphore Placidus Toppo (73), Archbishop of RanchiOswald Gracias (68) Archbishop of Bombay and President of CBCI and George Alencherry (67), Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly (Major Archdiocese - Syro-Malabar)
The list of the participating cardinals, so far, listed by age and area as per The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), New Delhi, website, is:
Europe:
Walter Kasper, 79 (Germany)
Severino Poletto, 79 (Italy)
Godfried Danneels, 79 (Belgium)
Raffaele Farina, 79 (Italy)
Joachim Meisner, 79 (Germany)
Giovanni Batista Re, 79 (Italy)
Dionigi Tettamanzi, 78 (Italy)
Francesco Monterisi, 78 (Italy)
Carlos Amigo Vallejo, 78 (Spain)
Paolo Sardi, 78 (Italy)
Paul Josef Cordes, 78 (Germany)
Franc Rodé, 78 (Slovenia)
Tarcisio Bertone, 78 (Italy)
Giovanni Lajolo, 78 (Italy)
Velasio De Paolis, 77 (Italy)
Santos Abril y Castelló, 77 (Spain)
Jose da Cruz Policarpo, 76 (Portugal)
Karl Lehmann, 76 (Germany)
Antonio María Rouco Varela, 76 (Spain)
Ennio Antonelli, 76 (Italy)
Andrys Juozas Backis, 76 (Lithuania)
Attilio Nicora, 75 (Italy)
Lluís Martínez Sistach, 75 (Spain)
Antonio Maria Vegliò, 75 (Italy)
Paolo Romeo, 75 (Italy)
Francesco Coccopalmerio, 74 (Italy)
Keith O'Brien, 74 (Scotland)
Manuel Monteiro de Castro, 74 (Portugal)
Carlo Caffarra, 74 (Italy)
Angelo Amato, 74 (Italy)
Stanislaw Dziwisz, 73 (Poland)
Seán Brady, 73 (Ireland)
Zenon Grocholewski, 73 (Poland)
Agostino Vallini, 72 (Italy)
Angelo Scola, 71 (Italy)
Giuseppe Bertello, 70 (Italy)
Gianfranco Ravasi, 70 (Italy)
André Armand Vingt-Trois, 70 (France)
Domenico Calcagno, 70 (Italy)
Angelo Bagnasco, 70 (Italy)
Jean-Louis Tauran, 69 (France)
Dominik Duka, 69 (Czech Republic)
Crescenzio Sepe, 69 (Italy)
Giuseppe Versaldi, 69 (Italy)
Angelo Comastri, 69 (Italy)
Mauro Piacenza, 68 (Italy)
Jean-Pierre Ricard, 68 (France)
Christoph Schönborn, 68 (Austria)
Stanislaw Rylko, 67 (Poland)
Vinko Puljic, 67 (Bosnia)
Antonio Cañizares Llovera, 67 (Spain)
Fernando Filoni, 66 (Italy)
Giuseppe Betori, 65 (Italy)
Josip Bozanic, 63 (Croatia)
Kazimierz Kycz, 63 (Poland)
Kurt Kock. 62 (Switzerland)
Philippe Barbarin, 62 (France)
Péter Erdö, 60 (Hungary)
Wim Eijk, 59 (Netherlands)
Reinhard Marx, 59 (Germany)
Rainer Maria Woelki, 56 (Germany)
North America:
Justin Francis Rigali, 77 (United States)
Roger Mahony, 76 (United States)
William Joseph Levada, 76 (United States)
Jean-Claude Turcotte, 76 (Canada)
Francis Eugene George, 76 (United States)
Edwin Frederick O'Brien, 73 (United States)
Donald William Wuerl, 72 (United States)
Marc Ouellet, 68 (Canada)
Seán Patrick O'Malley, 68 (United States)
Thomas Christopher Collins, 66 (Canada)
Raymond Leo Burke, 64 (United States)
Daniel DiNardo, 63 (United States)
James Michael Harvey, 63 (United States)
Timothy Michael Dolan, 63 (United States)
Latin America:
Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, 79 (Mexico)
Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, 79 (Chile)
Geraldo Majella Angelo, 79 (Brazil)
Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, 79 (Ecuador)
Cláudio Hummes, 78 (Brazil)
Julio Terrazas Sandoval, 76 (Bolivia)
Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, 76 (Cuba)
Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, 76
(Dominican Republic)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76 (Argentina)
Raymundo Damasceno Assis, 76 (Brazil)
Norberto Rivera Carrera, 70 (Mexico)
Jorge Urosa Savino, 70 (Venezuela)
Ruben Salazar Gómez, 70 (Colombia)
Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, 70
(Honduras)
Leonardo Sandri, 69 (Argentina)
Juan Luis Cipriani Throne, 69 (Peru)
Joao Braz de Aviz, 65 (Brazil)
Francisco Robles Ortega, 63 (Mexico)
Odilo Pedro Scherer, 63 (Brazil)
Africa:
Antonios Naguib, 77 (Egypt)
Anthony Olubumni Okogie, 76 (Nigeria)
Théodore Adrien Sarr, 76 (Senegal)
Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, 73 (Congo)
Gabriel Zubeir Wako, 72 (Sudan)
Wilfrid Fox Napier, 71 (South Africa)
John Njue, 69 (Kenya)
John Olorunfemi Oneiyekan, 69 (Nigeria)
Polycarp Pengo, 68 (Tanzania)
Robert Sarah, 67 (Guinea)
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, 64 (Ghana)
Asia/Oceania:
Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Mân, 78 (Vietnam)
Ivan Dias, 76 (India)
John Tong Hon, 73 (Hong Kong)
Telesphore Placidus Toppo, 73 (India)
Bechara Boutros Rai, 72 (Lebanon)
George Pell, 71 (Australia)
Oswald Gracias, 68 (India)
George Alencherry, 67 (India)
Malcolm Ranjith, 65 (Sri Lanka)
Luis Antonio Tagle, 55 (Philippines)
Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, 53 (India)