Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has been elected dean of the College of Cardinals, succeeding Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who has held the position since 2020. The Filipino prelate is the first Asian to serve as dean.
The Vatican announced Cardinal Tagle’s appointment Oct. 9. In the same announcement, Pope Leo XIV approved Cardinal Tagle’s election one day earlier, Oct. 8, and accepted Cardinal Re’s resignation .
According to canon law, the cardinal dean is elected from among the cardinal bishops (12 cardinal-bishops as of October 2026). Among the dean’s responsibilities is to summon the cardinals to Rome on the pope’s behalf, particularly for a papal conclave. However, he has no governing authority over them.
After Pope Leo’s election to the papacy, all curial officials automatically lost their positions. However, Pope Leo confirmed Cardinal Re as dean and Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri as vice-dean, a position Cardinal Sandri still holds.
Pope Francis approved Cardinal Re in 2020 as dean of the college while setting a new five-year term of service for deans with the possibility of renewal. Previously, the position of dean, considered “first among equals,” was a lifetime appointment.
Cardinal Re, 92, was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001 and has worked in the Roman Curia since 1963. He officiated the 2013 conclave, which elected Pope Francis, as the most senior cardinal-bishop.
Cardinal Tagle, 69, has served as the pro-prefect for the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization since 2019. Before his appointment to the Roman Curia, he served as archbishop of Manila from 2011–20.
Cardinal Tagle has also been appointed as papal legate to several milestone church events, including in the United States. He was appointed legate to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024 and to the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen in St. Louis last month.
Before being elected pope in 2025, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost was chosen by Pope Francis as the titular cardinal-bishop of Albano. Soon after his election, the pontiff assigned his former cardinal title to Cardinal Tagle, and Cardinal Tagle formally took possession of the see in October of the same year.
