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cardinal

Senior ecclesiastical official of the Catholic Church

Entitytitle position Catholic vocationQ45722

Also known as cardinalate · prince of the church

Instance of: title
, position
, Catholic vocation
Subclass of: Catholic clergyman
, prince
Part of: Catholic Church hierarchy
, College of Cardinals

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Cardinals are chosen and formally created by the pope, and typically hold the title for life. Collectively, they constitute the College of Cardinals. The most solemn responsibility of the cardinals is to elect a new pope in a conclave when the Holy See is vacant. With a few historical exceptions, popes are elected from among the College of Cardinals.

Overview

All data

77 statements · 16% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

On other databases

44 identifiers linking cardinal across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

16%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 3, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). cardinal (Q45722). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/cardinal-Q45722