Four Indians with voting right to elect next pope

Four Indian cardinals, including two Keralites, are part of the 120-strong College of Cardinals who will attend a secret conclave to choose the next pope.

The body of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI laids out in state inside St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican on Monday, January 2. (Photo | AP)

KOCHI: Four Indian cardinals, including two Keralites, are part of the 120-strong College of Cardinals who will attend a secret conclave to choose the next pope.

The Indian cardinals eligible to vote in the conclave are Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, 72, the Archbishop of Goa and Daman and Patriarch of the East Indies; Thiruvananthapuram-based Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, 64, the Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church; Cardinal Anthony Poola, 63, Archbishop of Hyderabad and the first Dalit cardinal in history; and Changanassery native Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, 51, who had been coordinating Pope Francis’ foreign trips since 2021