How many cardinals does the Catholic Church have?

Answer 1

As of 11/10/07 there are 183 Cardinals that have been appointed. Of these, 117 can vote for the next Pope. The difference of the two (183 - 117 = 66) are the total number of Cardinals that are over the age of 80, as no Cardinal over 80 can vote for the next Pope.

Answer 2

There are about 185 cardinals presently. However, a number of them are over 80 years of age and not eligible to vote in papal elections. There are about 120 eligible cardinals, the current maximum number allowed to take part in a conclave.

Answer 3

As of March 2013 there are over 200 Cardinals in the Catholic Church. However, only Cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to enter the Conclave and vote for a new Pope. As to today (12 March 2013) 115 Cardinals will be entering the Conclave.

Answer 4

A 2/3 majority is required. Since there are at most 120 cardinals, 80 people are sufficient to elect a pope.

However, the actual number may be lower.

Cardinals who are more than 80 years old when the Holy See becomes vacant are not eligible to vote, so the actual number of voters is likely to be a bit under 120, and the two-thirds majority number will therefore be a bit under 80. Also, for various reasons the college of cardinals may not be at its full strength of 120 at any given time.

As far as I can tell, there's no concept of a "quorum" for the conclave; presumably, all cardinals are expected to attend unless they absolutely cannot for reasons of illness or infirmity (and the conclave admits two doctors and allows any cardinal so ill as to require a nurse to bring one, so they'd have to be almost literally on death's door to not attend).

Which makes sense, I suppose; anyone likely to say "I've got better things to do than elect a pope" is pretty unlikely to be made a cardinal in the first place, so it's reasonable to assume that everyone eligible to vote will be there.

Answer 5

As of October 12, 2008, there are 192 Cardinals. 166 of them are under the age of 80 and may vote for a new Pope in a conclave.

Answer 6

There are usually about 120 cardinal electors as well as a number of retired cardinals who no longer are eligible to vote in a papal conclave.

Answer 7

There is no limit to the number of cardinals. However, only 120 can attend the conclave to elect a new pope. Therefore, the number of eligible (under age 80) cardinals is usually about 120.