The Quorum is a high-level
governing body in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Quorum “helps
set church policy while overseeing the many business interests of what is known
widely as the Mormon Church.”[1]
On December 27, 2025, Jeffrey R. Holland, “a high-ranking official . . . who
was next in line to become the faith’s president,” died.[2]
He was 85. To be at that age and yet next in line to lead a major Christian
denomination is a sign of just how tilted toward the elderly the leadership of
that Church was at the time. Almost exactly three months earlier, Russell M.
Nelson, the then-sitting president of the denomination, died at the age of 101.
Dallin H. Oaks, at the age of 93, became the next president. These ages make 75,
the mandatory retirement age for Roman Catholic bishops, look young, though
Pope John Paul II died at 84 and Pope Francis died at 88—both men while in
office. Especially in Christianity, whose Gospels depict Jesus and his
disciples as much younger men, the question of whether an aged leadership unduly
foists conservatism on what in the Gospels is characterized as a radical
religious movement.
The full essay is at "Conservatism in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles."
2. Ibid.
