cardinals of the catholic church- analysis

5/28/2018 Cardinals of the Catholic Church- Analysis

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An Analysis of the College of Cardinals

of the Roman Catholic Church

Basic Summary: Using information provided online123, I came up with an analysis of the College of

Cardinals, an important institution within the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinals are advisors to the

Pope, and should the Pope pass away or resign, they are tasked with selecting a new Pope. For theestimated 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, these men serve as the upper echelon in the Roman Catholic

Church. This analysis serves as a very basic presentation regarding the backgrounds of these men.

Methodology: This is a very informal analysis. I decided to break it into three categories: geographic

location (divided by regions, and countries), age (divided by age groups), and the Pope which appointed

the Cardinals.

For region, I decided to break it down into distinguishable physical geographic regions. For example, I

feel there is a clear distinction between North and South America. Some might list the Caribbean Islands

as part of either continent, but I felt that they were distinguishable enough to warrant their ownseparate category. This is the same case with Australia and New Zealand being labeled separately as

Oceania, instead of a region called Asia and Oceania. I did not give a separate region for the Middle

Eastern countries, as they span two continents (Egypt in Africa, Lebanon and Iraq in Asia). Instead of

putting them together by culture (which would have had to be done for the others), I simply separated

them by physical geographic regions. This is done to keep things as simple as possible.

Once I separated the various countries into their respective region, I simply tallied the number of

Cardinals in each country, and made a total for each region. I like to keep things simple.

When considering age, I first looked to see the youngest and oldest aged Cardinals, to give me some

bookends, so to speak. Those bookend ages were 54 and 98. Seeing that the other Cardinals would fall

between those two ages, I decided to, once again, keep it simple and separate the Cardinals into five (5)

age groups: 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89, and 90-99.

Finally, I decided that it would be best to organize the Cardinals by the Pope which appointed them as

Cardinal. To do this, I simply looked at the date that the Cardinal was appointed, and matched them

with the corresponding Pope. For the current College of Cardinals, there were four (4) Popes which

corresponded: Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis. Although Pope John

Paul I served between Paul VI and John Paul II, he was not alive long enough to appoint any Cardinals.

1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_cardinals

2http://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/cardinals-alive-age.htm

3http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/a-z-now.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_cardinalshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_cardinalshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_cardinalshttp://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/cardinals-alive-age.htmhttp://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/cardinals-alive-age.htmhttp://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/cardinals-alive-age.htmhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/a-z-now.htmhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/a-z-now.htmhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/a-z-now.htmhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/a-z-now.htmhttp://www.gcatholic.org/hierarchy/cardinals-alive-age.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_cardinals


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Analysis

Region

When looking at the various countries and regions, there are a few things that stand out, but are likely

not to be a surprise to those familiar with the church. For example, Europe stands out as having the

most Cardinals of any region, with 115 Cardinals, or 53% of the total. This is not surprising, considering

the long history of Roman Catholicism in Europe. However, there are some surprises when one

considers the global population of Catholics.

For example, as mentioned there are 115 Cardinals from Europe, or 53% of the global total. However,

Europe only accounts for around 24% of the global total Catholic population, and that number is steadily

decreasing.45

On the other hand, Africa only accounts for 19 Cardinals, or 9%, while the total Catholic

population of Africa has exploded from 6.8% in 1970 to 15.2% in 2012.

In the same vein, the Caribbean, South America, and parts of North America account for around 41% ofworldwide Catholic population, while they share a meagre 35 Cardinals, or 16% of the total number of

Cardinal in the Church. That is obviously far less than Europe.

It appears that while Catholicism is shifting to the global south in terms of population, the hierarchy

remains European. Essentially, Europeans have more pull power, despite having a shrinking number of

Catholics, while the growing areas of Catholicism are not as well represented. It seems odd that France

(8), a very secular country, would have more Cardinals representing it than a relatively religious country

like India (6) or Mexico (4). And while the Vatican is surrounded by Italy, and Italians are a fairly faithful

people, do they deserve to be represented by 51 Cardinals, while Brazil, an equally faithful country, is

only represented by 10 Cardinals? Should a country that is 30% the population of another, have 5x therepresentation?

Age

While it seems to be common knowledge that Cardinals are older than the lay population, it was rather

shocking to me to see that so many Cardinals were over the age of 80, active in Church leadership. I

assume that Catholics would say that this is because the Church needs wise, older men, which have

plenty of years of experience. That is, indeed, understandable. However, it might be of concern to have

over 3x the number of nonagenarians (20) as there are men who are under the age of 60 (6). Once

again, it seems that while the lay population of the Church is shifting one direction (in this case,

younger), the hierarchy is going the other direction (getting older).

4http://www.pewforum.org/2013/02/13/the-global-catholic-population/

5http://www.bbc.com/news/world-21443313


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Even the most simple of minds could see that this would have the potential to cause disconnect

between the lay population and hierarchy. This assertion is supported by numerous polls6789

which

question ordinary Catholics about their views on hot topics that the Church has addressed. Significant

portions of the Catholic population report having views contrary to those set forth by the Church. In

other words, these men are advising the Pope to lead the Church in one direction, while the average

Catholic might feel the Church needs to go a slightly (or significantly) different way.

Again, to some this might not be much of a concern. They might feel that the average Catholic is not

well versed in theology, so their views are not necessarily worth considering, especially when discussing

important matters, such as human sexuality, economics, politics, etc. These should be men who are well

versed in theological matters, have experience in the church, and are led by the Holy Spirit.

Papal Appointer

Finally, lets look at the trends regarding Papal appointment. Of the 217 Cardinals that currently make

up the College, 115 of these were appointed by Pope John Paul II, or 53%, over his 27 year service to the

Church. By contrast, Pope Benedict XVI appointed 81 Cardinals over his 8 years as Pope. And within the

last year, Pope Francis appointed 19 new Cardinals.

What does this mean? It would make sense to assume that the views of the appointing Pope will be

seen in those Cardinals that he appoints to help him lead the Church. For example, Pope Francis has

vocally stated his desire to help the poor, the needy, and those who are consideredleast of thesein

society. Not surprisingly, the majority (if not most) of the Cardinals that he appointed share these same

views. Some believe that Pope Benedict was a more theologically minded man. Again, if you look at his

appointees, many of them are going to be aligned with the way he viewed things.

This is similar to when a President of the United States chooses a new Supreme Court justice. A liberal

President is not going likely to choose a very conservative justice, and vice versa. Although the President

might not share all the same beliefs as a justice, they will share many of the same core beliefs about

how the Constitution should be interpreted.

If one wants to see the path that the Church is going, they must look at who appointed the men who are

advising and leading it. They are most likely going to share similar beliefs about theology, orthopraxy,

structure, and missions.

6http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/03/us-vatican-family-germany-idUSBREA121EH20140203

7http://www.slate.com/blogs/saletan/2014/02/11/catholic_poll_on_abortion_gay_marriage_and_birth_control_e

urope_and_the.html8http://www.univision.com/interactivos/openpage/2014-02-06/la-voz-del-pueblo-matriz-1

9http://ncronline.org/news/global/surveys-german-swiss-catholics-reject-many-church-teachings-family


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Conclusion: Drawing from the numbers that I researched, I can paint a picture of the average Cardinal in

the college. He is, on average, 77 years old. He is most likely going to be from Europe, specifically Italy,

Germany, Spain, or France. He will have been appointed by Pope John Paul II, meaning he share many of

the same views. This also means that he will have served 15-20 years, on average, in the position of

Cardinal.

He is vastly different from the people he is tasked with serving.

They are younger, most likely to be from Africa of Latin America, and have a wide variety of views that

contrast sharply with accepted Church doctrine.

It would almost seem to be a tale of two Churches, but I imagine the Roman Catholic Church has

successfully worked this way for centuries. In the end, it is up to the Holy Spirit to guide the Church in

the manner that most exults the Father and Son, furthering the Kingdom of God here on Earth. No

matter how trends may change, it is clear, given the leadership of the Church, that Rome will not sway

back and forth in the wind and will continue to do as it has done for so long.


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Data

Cardinals, by Region and Country

Region Cardinals from Region

Africa 19

Asia 21Caribbean 4

Europe 115

North America 30

Oceania 4

South America 24

Africa

9%

Asia

9%Caribbean

2%

Europe

53%

North America

14%

Oceania

2% South

America

11%

Cardinals, by Region


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Africa

Country # of Cardinals

Angola 1

Burkina Faso 1

Cameroon 1

Cte d'Ivoire 2DR Congo 1

Egypt 1

Ghana 1

Guinea 1

Kenya 1

Mozambique 1

Nigeria 3

Senegal 1

South Africa 1

Sudan 1

Tanzania 1Uganda 1

Angola

5% Burkina Faso

5%Cameroon

5%

Cte

d'Ivoire

11%

DR Congo

5%

Egypt

5%

Ghana

5%Guinea

5%

Kenya

5%

Mozambique

5%

Nigeria

16%

Senegal

5%

South Africa

5%

Sudan

5%

Tanzania

5%

Uganda

5%

Cardinals, By Country:

Africa


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Asia


Hong Kong 2

India 6

Indonesia 1

Iraq 1Lebanon 2

Philippines 4

South Korea 2

Sri Lanka 1

Thailand 1

Vietnam 1

Hong Kong

9%

India

29%

Indonesia

5%

Iraq

5%Lebanon

9%

Philippines

19%

South Korea

9%

Sri Lanka

5%

Thailand

5%

Vietnam

5%

# of Cardinals


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Caribbean


Cuba 1

Dominican Republic 1

Haiti 1

St. Lucia 1

Cuba

25%

Dominican

Republic

25%

Haiti

25%

St. Lucia

25%


Caribbean


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Europe


Austria 1

Belgium 1

Bosnia & Herzegovina 1

Croatia 1Czech Republic 2

France 8

Germany 10

Hungary 2

Ireland 2

Italy 51

Latvia 1

Lithuania 1

Malta 1

Netherlands 2

Poland 6Portugal 2

Romania 1

Slovakia 2

Slovenia 1

Spain 10

Switzerland 4

Ukraine 2

United Kingdom 3

1%

1%1%

1%2%

7%

9%

2%2%

44%

1%

1%

1%2%

5%

2%1%

2%

1%9%

3%

2%

3%

# of Cardinals AustriaBelgiumBosnia & Herzegovina

Croatia

Czech Republic

France

Germany

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Malta

NetherlandsPoland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom


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North America


Canada 4

Honduras 1

Mexico 4

Nicaragua 2United States 19

Oceania


Australia 3

New Zealand 1

Canada

13%

Honduras

3%

Mexico

13%

Nicaragua

7%

United States

64%


North America


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South America


Argentina 4

Bolivia 1

Brazil 10

Chile 3Colombia 3

Ecuador 1

Peru 1

Venezuela 1

17%

4%

42%

12%

13%

4%

4%4%

# of Cardinals

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Ecuador

Peru

Venezuela


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Cardinals, by Age

Age Group Total

50-59 6

60-69 39

70-79 74

80-89 78

90-99 20

AVG: 77.45 years old

50-59

3%

60-69

20%

70-79

37%

80-89

40%

Cardinals, By Age Group


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Appointed By Total

Paul VI 2

John Paul II 115

Benedict XVI 81

Francis 19

Paul VI

1%

John Paul II

53%

Benedict XVI

37%

Francis

9%

Cardinals, By Papal Appointer

cardinals of the catholic church- analysis

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