Due to age restrictions, only one of Colombia’s three cardinals is eligible to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, after the Catholic church leader resigns at the end of this month, local media reported Monday.
Of Colombia’s three cardinals – Dario Castrillon, Pedro Rubiano Saenz and Ruben Salazar Gomez – only the latter is on the right side of 80, the age limit for a new pope, reported El Espectador.
Gomez was born on September 22, 1942 in Colombia’s capital of Bogota.
Pope Benedict XVI had been hoped to visit Colombia at some point in 2013, however the announcement of his resignation on Monday has thrown a spanner in the works.
The current pope claimed that his advanced age and declining health had conspired to leave him unfit to continue the performance of his duties as pope of the Catholic church, which has been rocked in recent years by revelations of wide spread child sexual abuse.