? Why does the U.S. have 16 Cardinals ( I think...)

[demosincebirth]

and Mexico, Central America and South America have less than that?

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. We have 13, of whom 11 are eligible to vote.

Seven Cardinals currently lead U.S. archdioceses:

1.) Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore;

2.) Cardinal Francis George of Chicago;

3.) Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit;

4.) Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles;

5.) Cardinal Edward Egan of New York;

6.) Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia;

7.) Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, DC.

There are four U.S. Cardinals who are not currently diocesan bishops:

1.) Cardinal Avery Dulles, Professor of Theology, Fordham University;

2.) Cardinal James Stafford, Major Penitentiary;

3.) Cardinal Bernard F. Law, Archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica, Rome;

4.) Cardinal Edmund Szoka, President, Pontifical Commission for Vatican City.

Two U.S Cardinals are retired, and cannot vote in conclave:

1.) Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia;

2.) Cardinal William Baum, Major Penitentiary Emeritus.

Actually, Latin America has 23 cardinals, IIRC.

:)

[demosincebirth]

4. What I should have asked was

why the U.S., with only 64 million catholics have so many Cardinals, where as in Latin America with over 250 million Catholics have so few per capita

[IronLionZion]

2. Here's the list of Cardinals

http://www.catholic-pages.com/hierarchy/cardinals_list.asp

I counted 13 Americans and around 23 from Latin America including the Caribbean.

[Princess Turandot]

3. JP II certainly elevated more non-Europeans to higher office..

than anyone else. I don't know if anything requires that an Archbishop become a Cardinal. I know when O'Connor died and Egan replaced him, they basically said that the Archbishop of the NYC diocese is almost always made a Cardinal within a year or two. There
are 2 other Archbishops in the NYC/Long Island area who are not Cardinals.