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Styles of William Cardinal Baum
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Washington (emeritus)

William Wakefield Cardinal Baum (born November 21, 1926 in Dallas, Texas) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the senior Cardinal Priest to participate in the 2005 papal conclave.

Ordained a priest in 1951, he spent his early church career in Missouri. A privy chamberlain from 1961, from 1962 to 1965 he served as both vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and as an "expert" at the Second Vatican Council. He later became chancellor of that diocese before being named a bishop himself, heading the diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau from 1970. Three years later Pope Paul VI elevated him to Archbishop of Washington, D.C. (his successor in Springfield-Cape Girardeau being Bernard Francis Law, another future cardinal); and in the consistory of 1976 Baum was named Cardinal-Priest of S. Croce in via Flaminia. He participated in the two conclaves of 1978.

Under Pope John Paul II, Baum's rise continued, as in 1980 he was named to the Roman Curia as Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. In 1990 he became the Church's Major Penitentiary, exchanging the responsibility of overseeing church seminaries worldwide for that of supervising the office in charge of the forgiveness of sins.

Somewhat frail in recent years, he has suffered from deteriorating eyesight. His resignation as Penitentiary was accepted the day after his 75th birthday in 2001, but he has remained active in Rome to the extent that his health permits, and attended the meeting of American cardinals called to deal with the sex abuse scandal in 2003.

Baum was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. Along with Benedict (then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) and Jaime Cardinal Sin, he was one of three remaining cardinals elevated by Paul VI to retain voting rights in that conclave - though two more who had already died many years before John Paul, António Ribeiro and Emile Biayenda, would have been eligible to vote had they remained alive.

With the election of Ratzinger as pope on April 19, 2005, and the death of Sin on June 21, 2005, Baum became the last cardinal elevated by Pope Paul VI to maintain voting rights in a papal conclave. Since Baum reached the age of 80 on November 21, 2006, all cardinals who may vote in a conclave have been elevated by Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

Only two American Cardinals in history (Gibbons and O'Connell) have had longer cardinalates than Baum. If Baum is still alive as of October 25, 2008, he will pass O'Connell into second place, whilst if Cardinal Baum has not died by March 8, 2011, he will surpass Gibbons as the longest-serving American cardinal of all time.