who is the new cardinal protodeacon (and his duties)

It is he who utters the fateful phrase “Pope”, followed by the name of the elected representative and the name he has decided to give himself (“qui sibi nomen imposuit…”) as bishop of Rome. We are talking about the Cardinal Protodeaconof the most senior by appointment, that is, of the cardinals who belong to the Order of Deacons, one of the three Orders into which the College of Cardinals is divided (the others are that of Presbyters and that of Bishops).

This particular figure of the Sacred College has returned to the forefront in recent days. Not because we are on the eve of a Conclave. Pope Bergoglio, despite some ailments, seems to be in good health and shows no signs of having any intention of renouncing the See of Peter. But because during the Consistory on Monday, convened for the canonization of numerous blesseds, there was the so-called Optatio of three cardinals who, after ten years in the Order of Deacons, asked to pass to the Order of Presbyters. They are the American James Michael Harvey, the Italian Lorenzo Baldisseri and the German Gerhard Ludwig Müller.

At this point then the holder of the right to pronounce Habemus Papam has become the Corsican-French cardinal Dominique Mamberti.

To tell the truth, the title of protodeacon remains formally with Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, from Salerno, 91 years old, created cardinal of the Order of Deacons by Saint John Paul II in 2003, who has never asked to pass to the Order of Presbyters. However, Martino is over 80 years old and therefore could not participate in a possible Conclave.

Thus Mamberti, 72 years old, is currently the “acting” protodeacon. A position he will hold for at least eight months. In fact, after February 14, 2025, ten years after his creation as cardinal, he too will be able to opt for the transition to the Order of Presbyters. In that case the functions of protodeacon will go to the Italian Mario Zenariapostolic nuncio to Syria.

Mamberti, pronounced with the accent on the “e,” was the Vatican “foreign minister” under Benedict XVI. Pope Francis created him a cardinal and entrusted him with the presidency of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest Tribunal of the Holy See. According to the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium with which Pope Bergoglio reformed the Roman Curia, this Vatican role is the only one in which the presence of a cardinal is explicitly provided for.

The last protodeacon to whom the task of pronouncing the Habemus Papam fell was the Frenchman Jean-Louis Tauran in 2013. In 2005 it was the Chilean Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez. In the two conclaves of 1978 it was the Italian Pericle Felici.