Cardinal George Pell Turns 80, Loses Right to Vote in Papal Conclave

Cardinal Pell’s prison journal, written while he was in solitary confinement, is being published in three volumes. Ignatius Press released the second book on May 3.

Cardinal Pell has said he could not offer Mass in jail because he was not allowed access to wine for use in the consecration.

On May 13, Pell led a Eucharistic procession at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, in Rome, where he explained that during his 13 months in jail, he was “unable to celebrate Mass and attend Mass.”

“I listened to many Protestant preachers, and I became even more aware of the centrality of the liturgical celebration. It’s a making present of Christ’s sacrifice. It’s an explicit act of adoration. It involves the whole of our persons. It needs faith to be practiced,” he said.

St. Pope Paul VI established in 1970 that cardinals aged 80 and over could not participate in the process for electing a pope, citing “the problem of old age” and its significance for the “particularly serious and delicate tasks” of the office of cardinal.

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In total, six cardinals have turned or will turn 80 years old in 2021, losing their right to vote in a conclave.

Among these is Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, who turned 80 on March 8.

Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, will turn 80 years old on Aug. 18.

With the birthday of Cardinal Pell, the College of Cardinals consists of 222 members, of which 124 are cardinal electors.

Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.