On May 24, 2025, the Vatican press office announced that Pope Leo XIV has given the title of Cardinal of Albano to Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
This decision can be seen as a sign of trust, since this was Leo's seat as cardinal before his election as pope. Cardinals are symbolically attached to Roman churches or dioceses as a sign of their connection to the Eternal City and to the pontiff.
Those belonging to the order of cardinal bishops traditionally receive one of the seven “suburbicarian” dioceses surrounding the city of Rome (Ostia, Albano, Frascati, Sabina, Porto e Santa Ruffini, Velletri, Palestrina).
When he promoted Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to the order of “cardinal bishops” on February 6, Pope Francis assigned him Albano, a town southeast of Rome in the Castelli Romani region. As the cardinal prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost was to take possession of it in the Cathedral of San Pancrazio earlier this month, on May 12, the feast day of the city's patron saint.
But those plans changed when he was elected the 267th pope of the Catholic Church. The Church of Albano was thus left without a titular cardinal.
The new pope has now entrusted it to Cardinal Tagle, who was promoted to the order of bishops in 2020 without being assigned a suburban church. Other cardinals, such as Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, also belong to the order of bishops without suburban titles.
The orders of cardinals bishops, priests, deacons affect who is assigned to certain tasks, such as, for example, the task of announcing "habemus papam."
This was also why Cardinal Tagle was tasked with placing the Fisherman's Ring on Leo XIV at his inauguration (see video below) in what was the most emotive moment of the Mass.
Candy?
Cardinal Tagle has shared an amusing story from the conclave, which has enchanted the faithful all over the world.
He reported that he was able to make a "first act of charity to the new pontiff" because, as he had done in 2013, he "smuggled" candy into the conclave, to calm any hunger pangs during the long voting process. When Prevost saw that the votes were leading up to his election, he let out a sigh. This led Cardinal Tagle to ask him if he wanted a piece of the candy. And the future pope answered, yes, give me one!
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, described that moment of sighing when the votes were accumulating in his conclave as the "guillotine lowering."
