Percent of New Bishops from Religious Orders

Someone recently asked about the percent of new bishops that were from religious orders under the current Pope.

To simplify the statistics, I used the years from 2000 to 2014, ignoring the years that had a papal transition (2005 and 2013). The biggest problem is this leaves us with a small data set (1 almost complete year) for Pope Francis. A proper analysis will have to wait a few more years.

Here are the results, the percent of newly consecrated bishops from a religious order:
Pope Francis 29.7%
Pope Benedict XVI 24.9% (Low 19.2%, High 30.7%)
Pope John Paul II 25.0% (Low 20.2%, High 29.9%).

So it is true that the percent is higher for Pope Francis, but the annual variability of the percentages for the previous popes suggests it may not be significant. Both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II had years with a percentage higher than the year for Pope Francis.

Pope	Year	% Religious
F	2014	29.7%
B16/F	2013	22.0%
B16	2012	21.0%
B16	2011	19.7%
B16	2010	25.2%
B16	2009	29.4%
B16	2008	19.2%
B16	2007	30.7%
B16	2006	28.2%
JP2/B16	2005	26.5%
JP2	2004	21.4%
JP2	2003	20.2%
JP2	2002	27.5%
JP2	2001	25.9%
JP2	2000	29.9%

Cardinal Rebiba and Lineages

Many of ya'll have commented on the many episcopal lineages that end with Cardinal Rebiba. Charles Bransom has written on the topic here.

Just to give you an idea of how prevalent Rebiba descendants are:
The last 24 Popes (including both now living) are Rebiban. The last non-Rebiban was Pope Innocent XII who died in 1700.

Of the top 20 bishops in my databases by the number of bishops they consecrated (63 or more), all but 1 is Rebiban. The exception is Joaquín Fernández Cardinal de Portocarrero Mendoza who consecrated 64 bishops and died in 1760.

If you expand that to all bishops that consecrated 36 or more bishops - 50 in total - 42 are Rebiban.

95%+ of living bishops are descended from Cardinal Rebiba.

Cardinals Turning 80 (2014 edition)

Cardinal Hummes turned 80 yesterday and thus today he lost his right to vote in a conclave when one becomes necessary. (See When does a Cardinal become ineligible to Vote in a Conclave? for the details on that.)

He joins a list of 5 other Cardinals that also turned 80 earlier this year (Cardinals Vela Chiriboga, Re, Pham Minh Mân, Tettamanzi, and Monterisi).

There are 6 more Cardinals that turn 80 later this year. One more in August (Cardinal Amigo Vallejo), three in September (Cardinals Sardi, Cordes, and Rodé), and the last two in December (Cardinals Bertone and Darmaatmadja).

In 2015, only 5 Cardinals turn 80. But in 2016, there are 12. That number drops back to 5 in 2017. The table below summarizes the numbers.

When	Cardinal Electors
Now	117
End of 2014	111
End of 2015	106
End of 2016	94
End of 2017	89

(the table assumes no deaths nor new Cardinal Electors)

The last group of new Cardinals was created this past February. There were 106 Cardinal Electors before that and 122 with the new additions. That suggests that the next Consistory to Create New Cardinals will be held towards the end of 2015, or at the latest, in 2016.

Cardinal that has voted in the most Conclaves?

Someone asked a good question: which cardinal has voted in the most conclaves?

Based on conclaves from 1400 to last year, Girolamo Cardinal Simoncelli is the winner - having voted in 10 different conclaves. He was born in 1522, elevated to Cardinal in 1553, and died in 1605.

It should be noted that the 16th century saw 17 conclaves (vs 8 in the 20th century). All of the top 10 are from that era.

If I limit it to more modern times (1900 to today), there are three cardinals that have voted in 4 conclaves each: Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger (1904-1991), Giuseppe Cardinal Siri (1906-1989), and Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski (1901-1981).

By strange coincidence, all three were created cardinals in the consistory on 12 January 1953 by Pope Pius XII, which was also his last.

If we include the 19th century, two more are added to the list with 4 each: Carlo Cardinal Oppizzoni (1769-1855) and Tommaso Cardinal Riario Sforza (1782-1857).

The 18th century sees the first two cardinals with more than 4: Alessandro Cardinal Albani (1692-1779) and Pietro Cardinal Ottoboni (1667-1740), both with 6 each. I should note that Cardinal Ottoboni's first conclave was in 1691.

Cardinal Deaths in 2014

Today we lost our third Cardinal of the year. That is not an outrageously large number, but there is something unusual - all three were retired Patriarchs.

12 Mar	78.0	José da Cruz Cardinal Policarpo †	Patriarch Emeritus of Lisboa {Lisbon}, Portugal
8 Apr	86.5	Emmanuel III (Emmanuel-Karim) Cardinal Delly †	Patriarch Emeritus of Babylon {Babilonia} (Chaldean), Iraq
12 May	88.8	Marco Cardinal Cé †	Patriarch Emeritus of Venezia {Venice}, Italy

May they all rest in peace.

The Status of Sydney (updated!)

On Monday, George Cardinal Pell was named as the first Prefect (head) of a new Vatican office: the Secretariat for the Economy. He will actually take up the post toward the end of March.

What has been left quite unclear is whether Cardinal Pell remains as Archbishop of Sydney.

The announcement itself does not use the language which is customary when the newly named is leaving their previous post. In addition on that day, Cardinal Pell sent a letter to the staff in Sydney and he signed it "Archbishop of Sydney".

Various news outlets have had conflicting reports.

The Apostolic Nuncio (Archbishop Paul Gallagher) has indicated that Sydney is not currently vacant (reported in the Parramatta Sun on 26 Feb).

And yet the Sydney Archdiocese has announced the naming of an Administrator on 27 Feb.

So at this point I have to say that I do not know for certain if Sydney is vacant. I will continue to list Cardinal Pell as the Archbishop until there is a clear official statement.
-----
Update: the nunciature today released as statement that settles the matter. It reads, in part:

"...appointed as Apostolic Administrator "Sede Vacante" of the Archdiocese of Sydney..."

There can only be an Ap. Admin. "Sede Vacante" if the see is in fact vacant. Thus Cardinal Pell is now Archbishop Emeritus of Sydney.

Pre Pope John Paul II Bishops, updated

Today (11 Feb 2014) two bishops retired that had been named to those posts by then Pope Paul VI. They were: Bishop Sebastian Koto Khoarai, O.M.I. of Bishop of Mohale’s Hoek, Lesotho and Bishop Howard James Hubbard of Bishop of Albany, New York, USA.

So the question: How many active bishops were appointed to their current post before Pope John Paul II became Pope?

The answer is only 9 6. (updated 2 Nov 2014)

The ordinaries are: (Date of Appointment, Date of Birth, Age on 2 Nov 2014, Name, Title)

• 23 May 1966, 12 Apr 1919, 95.56, Archbishop Hovhannes Tcholakian of Istanbul (Armenian), Turkey
• 25 Jun 1973, 11 Dec 1936, 77.89, Archbishop Nikólaos Fóscolos of Athenai {Athens}, Greece
  Retired 12 Aug 2014
• 27 Jun 1974, 5 Dec 1936, 77.91, Bishop Franghískos Papamanólis, O.F.M. Cap. of Syros e Milos and Santorini {Thira}, Greece
  Retired 13 May 2014
• 20 Nov 1975, 10 May 1942, 72.48, Bishop Gilbert Guillaume Marie-Jean Aubry of Saint-Denis-de-La Réunion
• 26 Feb 1977, 5 Aug 1937, 77.24, Archbishop Hieronymus Herculanus Bumbun, O.F.M. Cap. of Pontianak, Indonesia
  Retired on 3 Jun 2014
• 26 Feb 1977, 25 Sep 1940, 74.10, Bishop Jean-Claude Bouchard, O.M.I. of Pala, Chad
• 27 Feb 1978, 23 Sep 1939, 75.11, Bishop Armando Umberto Gianni, O.F.M. Cap. of Bouar, Central African Republic
• 27 Feb 1978, 5 Jul 1942, 72.33, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu, Kenya
  (Originally named Bishop, Elevated to Archbishop on 21 May 1990)
• 28 Feb 1978, 15 Aug 1937, 77.21, Bishop Philip Sulumeti of Kakamega, Kenya

There are no longer any Auxiliary Bishops that meet the criteria. The last one retired in January 2012.

All of them were named by Pope Paul VI.

You'll notice that many of them are at or near the retirement age. Before they do retire, let us take a moment to thank them for their many years of service!

The Polish Hierarchy

Ya'll may have noticed that the last week or so the Polish Hierarchy has been having their ad limina visits. One thing that struck me was just how many Auxiliary Bishops were on the lists.

So I did a bit of research, there are 45 jurisdictions in Poland - 15 archdioceses and 30 dioceses. Of those, only 9 do not have an active Auxiliary Bishop. The are:

• Bydgoszcz
• Drohiczyn
• Kalisz
• Katowice (Archdiocese)
• Lowicz
• Sandomierz
• Szczecin-Kamien (Archdiocese)
• Wroclaw-Gdansk (Ukrainian)
• Poland, Military

In terms of numbers: 77% of dioceses and 87% of archdioceses have at least one active Auxiliary (80% overall).