Cardinal Tagle is new dean of the College of Cardinals. Photo shows the Filipino cardinal putting the Fisherman’s Ring on the finger of Pope Leo XIV during a Holy mass for the beginning of the latter’s pontificate in St Peter’s square in The Vatican. (Photo the Vatican Media/AFP)
Pope Leo XIV has designated Luis Antonio Gokim Cardinal Tagle as the dean of the College of Cardinals, making him the first Asian to preside over the body that elects the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Tagle replaced Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, as announced by the Holy See on Friday, October 9, a day after Pope Leo approved the Filipino Cardinals election by the cardinal-bishops, the highest order of cardinals.
Tagle’s 92-year-old predecessor had held the post since January 2020 until his resignation which was accepted by Pope Leo only this week.
Francis extended Re’s term in January 2025, and Re presided at Francis’s funeral that April. He now becomes dean emeritus.
Although Tagle’s new post is considered as a top post in the Vatican hierarchy, it holds no jurisdictional authority over the other Cardinals, but it designates him as ‘primus inter pares’ (Latin for first among equals).
The main duties of the new dean are centered on the convening of a conclave when a pope dies or resigns, among others. Deans serve five-year terms that can be renewed once, under rules introduced by Pope Francis in 2019. Before that, the post had no fixed term.
