Cardinal electors for the 1978 papal conclaves
The papal conclaves of and of were respectively convened to elect a pope, the leader of the Catholic Church, to succeed Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul I following their respective deaths on and on . According to the apostolic constitution "Romano Pontifici eligendo", which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which the conclave began (i.e. cardinals who were born on or after for the first conclave and on or after for the second conclave) were eligible to participate . Although not formal requirements, the cardinal electors invariably elect the pope from among their number and do so by secret ballot (). Due to the brief duration between the conclaves, the respective lists of cardinal electors are nearly identical. Of the 129 members of the Sacred College of Cardinals at the time of the beginning of the first conclave, there were 114 cardinal electors who were eligible to participate. Three cardinal electors did not participate, decreasing the number in attendance to 111 ( of all cardinal electors, of all cardinals). Two cardinals, both cardinal electors, died in the time between the conclaves . Of the 126 members of the Sacred College of Cardinals at the time of the beginning of the second conclave, there were 111 cardinal electors ( of all cardinals) who were eligible to participate; all of whom were in attendance. The number of votes required to be elected pope with a two-thirds-plus-one supermajority in either conclave was 75. Of the 112 attending cardinal electors in either conclave, 5 were cardinal bishops, 92 were cardinal priests and 15 were cardinal deacons; 3 had been created cardinals by Pope Pius XII, 8 by Pope John XXIII and 101 by Pope  Paul VI; 28 worked in the service of the Holy See, such as in the Roman Curia, 77 were in charge of pastoral duties outside Rome and 10 had retired. The oldest cardinal elector in the conclaves was Joseph-Marie Trịnh Như Khuê, at the age of –, while the youngest cardinal elector was Jaime Lachica Sin, at the age of –. Another 15 cardinals were ineligible to participate in either conclave, for reasons of age. The cardinal electors entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the first conclave on . On , after four ballots over two days, they elected Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch  of Venice, who took the papal name John Paul I. After his death 33 days into his papacy, the cardinal electors again entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the second conclave on . On , after eight ballots over three days, they elected Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków, who took the papal name John Paul II. Cardinal electors. The Sacred College of Cardinals is divided into three orders: cardinal bishops (CB), cardinal priests (CP) and cardinal deacons (CD), with precedence in that sequence. This is the order in which the cardinal electors process into the conclave, take the oath and cast  their ballots. For cardinal bishops, except the Eastern Catholic patriarchs, the dean is first in precedence, followed by the vice-dean and then by the rest 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 the consistory in which they were created cardinals and then by the order in which they appeared in the official announcement or bulletin. Two of the cardinal electors were from the Eastern Catholic Churches: Stéphanos I Sidarouss (Coptic) and Joseph Parecattil (Syro-Malabar). In addition , the senior cardinal bishop, the senior cardinal priest, the senior cardinal deacon and the junior cardinal deacon were assigned specific roles in the conclaves, such as presiding over the conclave itself (the senior cardinal bishop) or announcing the election of the pope (the senior cardinal deacon). For both conclaves, these were, respectively, Jean Villot, Giuseppe Siri, Pericle Felici and Mario Luigi Ciappi. Villot was also the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, in charge of administering the Holy See during its vacancy. The 112 cardinal electors in the table below are those who participated in at least one of the  two conclaves. Two cardinals participated in only one of the conclaves: Albino Luciani, elected Pope John Paul I in the first conclave and whose death prompted the second conclave, as well as John Joseph Wright, who did not participate in the first conclave due to health reasons owing to surgery. Another two cardinal electors did not participate in the first conclave; both died before the second conclave began. The data below are as of or , the respective dates on which the conclaves began. Age ranges are given for certain cardinals in the case of any differences as at the beginning  of the two conclaves. By default, the cardinals are sorted by precedence within each table. All cardinals are of the Latin Church unless otherwise stated. Cardinals belonging to institutes of consecrated life or to societies of apostolic life are indicated by the respective post-nominal letters. Cardinal electors by continent and by country. The 112 attending cardinal electors in either conclave were from 49 countries on all six inhabited continents; the countries with the greatest number of cardinal electors were Italy (twenty-six in the first conclave, twenty-five in the second conclave), the United States (eight in the first  conclave, nine in the second conclave; excluding Puerto Rico) and France (seven in both conclaves).