POPE: 117 CARDINALS ON STANDBY FOR CONCLAVE
AGI
 

(AGI) - Vatican City, Apr 1 - It has been over a month that the mass media report the Vatican opinions of the influential ecclesiastical exponents to succeed Pope John Paul II. There are now 117 cardinals who would participate to a possible conclave: it was in the last couple of days that Angolan Alexandre do Nascimento and Ecuadorean Antonio Jose' Gonzalez Zumarraga turned 80. The next cardinal to come out of the electors will be the Emeritus Patriarch of Venice, Marco Ce', who will turn 80 on July 8. The Italian contingent until then will be composed of twenty cardinals and even after Ce's leaving will still be the largest: in the cardinal college; all five continents are present numbering 66 countries, 52 of which have cardinal electors and among these besides Italy only the USA, with 11 members, exceed the threshold of ten representatives in the conclave. It is not by chance that the group of Italian cardinals is largest and this massive presence will not be non-influential in a possible conclave. Among the twenty Italian cardinals the most popular name is Milan Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi's.