Thepapal conclave of 2013 was convened to elect apope, the leader of theCatholic Church, to succeedBenedict XVI followinghis resignation on 28 February 2013. In accordance with theapostolic constitutionUniversi Dominici gregis, which governed thevacancy of the Holy See, onlycardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which theHoly See became vacant (in this case, those who were born on or after 28 February 1933) were eligible to participate in theconclave.^[1] Although not a formal requirement, the cardinal electors almost always elect the pope from among their number. The election was carried out by secret ballot (Latin:per scrutinium).^[1]

Of the 207 members of theCollege of Cardinals at the time of Benedict XVI's resignation, 117 cardinal electors were eligible to participate in the subsequent conclave.^[a][3] Two cardinal electors did not participate, decreasing the number of participants to 115.^[4][5] The required two-thirdssupermajority needed to elect a pope was 77 votes.^[1][6]

Of the 115 attending cardinal electors, 4 werecardinal bishops, 81 werecardinal priests, and 30 werecardinal deacons; 48 had been created cardinals byPope John Paul II and 67 by Pope Benedict XVI; 29 worked in the service of the Holy See (such as in theRoman Curia), 61 were in pastoral ministry outside Rome, and 25 had retired. The oldest cardinal elector in the conclave wasWalter Kasper, at the age of 79,^[b][7] and the youngest wasBaselios Cleemis Thottunkal, at the age of 53.^[8] Another 90 cardinals were ineligible to participate in the conclave for reasons of age.^[3]

The cardinal electors entered theSistine Chapel to begin the conclave on 12 March 2013.^[9][10] On 13 March, after five ballots over two days, they elected CardinalJorge Bergoglio, thearchbishop of Buenos Aires, who took thepapal name Francis.^[11][12]

TheCollege of Cardinals is divided into three orders – cardinal bishops (CB),cardinal priests (CP), andcardinal deacons (CD) – withformal precedence in that sequence. This determines the order in which the cardinal electors process into the conclave, take the oath, and cast their ballots.^[1] For cardinal bishops (except the Eastern Catholicpatriarchs), thedean of the College of Cardinals isfirst in precedence, followed by the vice-dean,^[c] and then by the remainder in order of appointment as cardinal bishops. For cardinal bishops who are Eastern Catholic patriarchs, for cardinal priests, and for cardinal deacons, precedence is determined by the date of theconsistory in which they were created cardinals and then by the order in which they appeared in the official announcement or bulletin.^[5]

Four of the cardinal electors were from theEastern Catholic Churches:Antonios Naguib (Coptic),Béchara Boutros Raï (Maronite),George Alencherry (Syro-Malabar), andBaselios Cleemis Thottunkal (Syro-Malankara). Raï and Thottunkal were the first cardinals from their respective churches to participate in a conclave.^[13][14] The senior cardinal bishop, the senior cardinal priest, the senior cardinal deacon, and the junior cardinal deacon, who were assigned specific roles in the conclave, such as presiding over the conclave itself (the senior cardinal bishop) orannouncing the election of the pope (the senior cardinal deacon),^[1] were, respectively,Giovanni Battista Re,Godfried Danneels,Jean-Louis Tauran, andJames Michael Harvey.^[5] Thecamerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, who was in charge of administering the Holy See during its vacancy, wasTarcisio Bertone.^[1][15]

The data below are as of 28 February 2013, the date on which the Holy See became vacant. All cardinals are of theLatin Church unless otherwise stated. Cardinals belonging toinstitutes of consecrated life or tosocieties of apostolic life are indicated by the relevantpost-nominal letters.

The 115 attending cardinal electors represented 48 countries on all six inhabited continents.^[f] The countries with the greatest number of cardinal electors wereItaly (twenty-eight), theUnited States (eleven), andGermany (six).

• Cardinals created by John Paul II
• Cardinals created by Benedict XVI
• Cardinal electors in the 2005 papal conclave
• Cardinal electors in the 2025 papal conclave
• List of current cardinals

• 2013 papal conclave
• Lists of papal conclaves
• Pope Benedict XVI
• Pope Francis

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• CS1 Latin-language sources (la)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2018
• Articles containing Latin-language text
• Pages using Template:Post-nominals with customized linking
• Featured lists