Conclave to choose next pope will be most geographically diverse in history

There is no rule that cardinals electing a new pope vote a certain way according to their nationality or region. But understanding their makeup in geographic terms can help explain some of their priorities as they open the conclave Wednesday to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church.

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A cardinal who heads the Vatican's liturgy office might have a very different set of concerns from the archbishop of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A cardinal who runs a large European archdiocese with hundreds of priests likely has other priorities than the Vatican ambassador ministering to war-torn Syria or the archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua, whose church has been under siege by the government.

There are currently 135 cardinals who are under age 80 and eligible to vote in the conclave, hailing from 71 different countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history. Already two have formally told the Holy See that they cannot attend for health reasons, bringing the number of men who will enter the Sistine Chapel down to 133.

"We must look at all five continents," Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia, said Monday as cardinals met ahead of the conclave. "The Holy Spirit looks at them all."

A two-thirds majority is needed to be elected pope, meaning that if the number of electors holds at 133, the winner must secure 89 votes.

"We support whoever is the best person," Singapore's Cardinal William Goh said. "We don't choose a pope based on continent, based on race, based on language."

The countries with the most electors are: Italy (17), the United States (10), Brazil (7), France and Spain (5 each), Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal (4 each).

Here is a regional breakdown of the full 135 cardinal electors, according to Vatican statistics and following the Vatican's geographic grouping.

Europe: 53. (An elector who says he's skipping the conclave is from Spain, so the actual number of Europeans is expected to be 52.)

Asia (including the Middle East): 23