Two Catholic cardinals will not participate in next week’s conclave to elect a new pope due to health concerns, as announced by the Vatican on Tuesday, April 29. This decision reduces the expected number of electors to 133.
Although the Vatican has not disclosed the names of the absent cardinals, a source within the archdiocese of Valencia confirmed to AFP that Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, Archbishop Emeritus of Valencia, will not attend the conclave due to health reasons.
The secret election, which will be held in the Sistine Chapel beginning May 7, involves 135 cardinals eligible to vote. The process, steeped in tradition, is expected to span several days.
With two electors now excluded, the threshold for election, a two-thirds majority, drops to 89 votes. The conclave follows the recent end of Pope Francis’s papacy, and speculation is rife about the potential successor, with several names circulating among Vatican observers and insiders.
