Pope Leo XIV Names Filipino Cardinal Tagle as Dean of the College of Cardinals
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as dean of the College of Cardinals, replacing the 92-year-old Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. The role gives Tagle a central part in any future papal transition and elevates his profile as a possible contender to become Asia's first pope.
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as the new dean of the College of Cardinals, a position that places the 69-year-old Filipino prelate at the center of any future papal transition and raises his standing as a possible successor.
Tagle, who leads the Vatican's evangelization office, replaces Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who is 92. The Vatican announced that Leo approved the election of Tagle as dean, a choice made by a group of six cardinals who hold the most senior rank within the college. Tagle was the youngest member of that group, a sign the cardinals intended their new dean to remain in the post for some time.
The dean of the College of Cardinals carries out several duties that matter most when a pope dies or resigns. He celebrates the funeral of the previous pope and then helps lead the closed-door meetings of cardinals before the vote, sessions in which the church's future needs are discussed. If he is under the age of 80 at the time of a conclave, he also helps run the secret election in the Sistine Chapel. After a new pope is chosen, it is the dean who asks the winner whether he accepts the office and what name he wishes to be called.
Tagle, a former archbishop of Manila, had already been viewed as a possible contender in the 2025 conclave that elected Leo. His new role further strengthens his «papabile» profile, the term used for a cardinal seen as having the qualities of a pope. Should a future conclave elect him, Tagle would become the first pope from Asia.
There is recent precedent for a dean later becoming pope. Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger held the office of dean when he was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Another cardinal mentioned as a possible dean was Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 71, who served as Pope Francis' secretary of state and remains in that position. Parolin was also considered a leading contender in the 2025 conclave.
The appointment follows a period in which Pope Francis took unusual steps regarding the dean's office. With only months to live in early 2025, Francis extended the mandate of Cardinal Battista Re so that he could remain dean, even though he was a decade past the Vatican's normal retirement age. That decision underscored how much Francis wanted a loyal cardinal to run the conclave after his death, even though Battista Re was not himself a contender for the papacy.
At the same time, Francis added a new cardinal to the senior ranks of the college, a move that immediately raised that cardinal's profile as «papabile»: Cardinal Robert Prevost, who would become Pope Leo XIV. The latest appointment now places Tagle in the same high-visibility position that Ratzinger once occupied, giving the Filipino cardinal a central institutional role as the church looks toward its next leadership transition.
3
