The election of the pope is not solely the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church; it is the entire Catholic Church that participates in this sacred act. While the Latin (Western) Rite, commonly known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest and most widespread, it is but one of 24 autonomous (sui iuris) Churches that together form the universal Catholic Church. Each of these Churches is fully Catholic, maintaining full communion with the pope, yet preserving their own hierarchical structures, liturgical traditions, and canonical systems.

What unites these diverse Churches is not only their communion with the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, but also their shared apostolicity. The Eastern Catholic Churches, like the Latin Church, are rooted in the apostolic tradition, uphold the apostolic faith, and maintain valid apostolic succession. Their bishops are true successors of the apostles, and their sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and Holy Orders, are fully valid. This ensures that they are coequal in dignity with the Latin Church, not subordinate to it.

Recognising this shared apostolic foundation, some members of the Eastern Catholic clergy have been elevated to the College of Cardinals by various popes. When under the age of eighty, these cardinals are fully eligible to participate in a papal conclave, voting alongside their Latin-rite counterparts to elect a new pope. Their participation is a powerful indicator to the universality of the Church and its deep-rooted apostolic tradition.

At the 2025 conclave, Eastern Catholic cardinals included: Béchara Boutros al-Rahi, Maronite Patriarch of Antioch (Lebanon); George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (India); Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (India), the first cardinal from his Church; and Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian, Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian Catholic Church, who was elevated to the cardinalate in 2022 by Pope Francis. I personally want the possibility of all the other rites having their own Cardinals. 

Their presence at the conclave not only reflects the Church’s liturgical and cultural diversity but also affirms that the papacy is a ministry of unity, exercised for the entire apostolic Church, both Eastern and Western. Thus, the election of the pope is not an exclusively Latin affair but a deeply ecclesial act, rooted in the shared apostolic heritage and full communion of all the Churches that form the Catholic Church.

In an age when misunderstandings often reduce Catholic identity to one cultural or liturgical expression, it is vital to recover the full breadth of the Church’s catholicity. The pope, as the visible sign of unity, is not the head of one Church among many, but the servant of the communion of all. This is why they call themselves “Servus servorum Dei” - Servant of the Servants of God. His election, therefore, is not a Roman prerogative but a universal event - an act that draws from the richness of all the apostolic Churches and reaffirms the unity of the Body of Christ across every rite, tradition, and people.