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COLLEGE OF CARDINALS
The Sacred College of Cardinals is the body of all Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. The College of Cardinals body plays two roles for the church:
• Participating of the College of Cardinals in papal elections when the Holy See is vacant.
• College of Cardinals advising the Roman Pontiff about Church matters when he summons them to a consistory.
Historically, the College of Cardinals was also the clergy of the city of Rome serving the Pope. The College of Cardinals was assigned duties in parishes of the city.
The College of Cardinals has no ruling power except during the sede vacante period. The College of Cardinals powers are still extremely limited.
The president and vice-president of the College of Cardinals are the Dean and the Sub-Dean. Both are elected by the College of Cardinals holding sub-urbicarian dioceses. Except for presiding, the Dean of the college of cardinal has no power of governance over the cardinals.
College of Cardinals Choosing the pope
Since January 1, 1971, cardinals over the age of 80 have not had a vote in papal election, under the terms of Pope Paul VI's motu proprio Ingravescentem Aetatem
The rules for the election of the pope are now those stated in Universi Dominici Gregis, published by Pope John Paul II on 22 February 1996. It now states that cardinals over the age of 80 at the day the see become vacant do not have a vote in the papal election.
Although the rules of the Conclave explicitly say the Pope need not be chosen from among the ranks of the Cardinals (in theory any male Roman Catholic may be elected Pope), that has been the norm since the election of Pope Urban VI in 1378.
Members of the College of Cardinals
The following is the list of Cardinals as of June 2005. Cardinals are shown in order of precedence, based on seniority by date of appointment. Stephen Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan is considered the most senior member of the College by length of service, as he was listed first of those surviving from the 1969 consistory. However, Angelo Cardinal Sodano, as dean of the College of Cardinals, has the highest precedence as a Cardinal Bishop.
Cardinals aged over 80 are indicated with an asterisk. All but fourteen of the Cardinals alive at the death of Pope John Paul II were appointed by him. Three of those fourteen were under 80 years old as of the day of John Paul II's death, and one of them has since been elected Pope. There are now a total of 181 cardinals of whom 115 are aged under 80.
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