Cardinals created by John Paul II
Pope John Paul II created 231 cardinals in nine consistories held at roughly three-year intervals. Three of those cardinals were first created in pectore, that is, without their names being announced, and only identified by the pope later. He named a fourth in pectore as well but never revealed that name. At his 2001 consistory, where he elevated 42 prelates and announced the names of two created in pectore earlier, he created more cardinals at one time than ever before or since. His consistories in 1985, 1994, and 2003 were among the largest ever.
In his first three consistories, John Paul adhered to the limit of 120 that Pope Paul VI set on the number of cardinal electors in 1975. and he included that maximum when he reformed the papal conclave procedures in 1996. His appointments exceeded that number for the first time in 1988 when the number of electors rose to 121, and then again in 1998 when it reached 122. In each of his last two consistories, in 2001 and 2003, he raised the number to 135, a record figure only exceeded once, by Pope Francis in 2023.
He was the first pope to allow someone not a bishop to become a cardinal since Pope John XXIII mandated that cardinals be bishops in 1962. His appointments included one future pope, Pope Francis.
30 June 1979
John Paul created fourteen cardinals at his first consistory and he announced he was withholding the name of a fifteenth. That additional cardinal's name was not made public until 1991. All those named were archbishops, including six Italians and two Poles. These appointments, excluding the name withheld, brought the number of cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday to 120, the maximum set by Pope Paul VI, while the entire membership of the College of Cardinals reached 135.| Name | Title when named cardinal | Country | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Agostino Casaroli | Pro-Secretary of State of Secretariat of State | Italy2 February 1983John Paul created 18 cardinals on 2 February 1983, including the first resident of the Soviet Union and four others from countries with Communist governments. This brought the College to 138 members, of whom 120 were young enough to serve as electors in a papal conclave. Another cardinal was created in pectore or secretly. John Paul granted a dispensation from the requirement that all cardinals be bishops to Henri de Lubac, the first such dispensation since Pope John XXIII established the rule in 1962.
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Italy
Lebanon
Spain
Chile
France|1974