F
frommi
Guest
Abp Levada (no surprise there) and Abp O’Malley (kind of surprising).
Consistory is March 24th
Consistory is March 24th
Actually, neither is. Boston usually has a Cardinal.Abp Levada (no surprise there) and Abp O’Malley (kind of surprising).
Consistory is March 24th
Boston’s Cardinal is still alive and of voting age in the form of Cardinal Law. Naming O’Malley is a surprise for that reason only. He was skipped over in the last consistory for similar reasons.Actually, neither is. Boston usually has a Cardinal.
PF
All metropolitan sees are not headed by cardinals…St. Louis, Portland…there’s a long list of archdioceses that don’t have cardinalsI think what is surprising was for the Archbishop of Boston NOT to have been named earlier by Pope John Paul II. And the reason being that the late Pope was too sickly to have called a consistory in 2005, 2 years after the last consistory in 2003.
Boston is a metropolitan archdiocese which normally and traditionally calls for its Archbishop to be named a Cardinal. After the resignation of Cardinal Law, his successor, Abp. O’Malley, was expected to be named also a Cardinal. All metropolitan archdioceses in the U.S., and throughout the world, are headed by a Cardinal. This explains the elevation of the Archbishops of Manila, Caracas, Seoul, Krakow, etc. Abp. O’Malley was “skipped” in 2003 perhaps because he was not yet the Archbishop of Boston (I think he was appointed Boston’s Archbishop AFTER(?) the 2003 consistory) or perhaps because there were already “too many” U.S Cardinals?
In the same vein, a Prefect of a curial dicastery normally and traditionally is a Cardinal. As Prefect of the CDF, a “major” department of the Roman Curia, Archbishop Levada was a shoo-in to be created a Cardinal at the next consistory after his appointment by Pope Benedict to succeed him in that capacity.
To my mind, the “surprise,” although a very pleasant one, is the elevation of Hongkong’s “mere” Bishop, Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, S.D.B., to the Cardinalate. This speaks volume as the appointment re-emphazises the importance of the Catholic Church in China and Rome’s support for the persecuted and long-suffering Chinese Catholics.
All archbishops are metropolitans who receive the pallium…Milwaukee, Denver, St. Louis, Dubuque, Galveston-Houston…Frommi:
I said “normally and traditionally.”
Metropolitan Archdioceses are headed by Metropolitan Archbishops and the “ordinary” Archdioceses are headed by “ordinary” Archbishops. These latter Archbishops are not given the “pallium” by the Pope, only the Metropolitan Archbishops.
“Normally and traditionally,” Metropolitan Archbishops are created Cardinals.
Are you certain that St. Louis is a Metropolitan Archdiocese like New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles? Or, is St. Louis just an Archdiocese, like Denver and New Orleans, for now?
It’s more than this.Becoming a cardinal is a personal honor given to a prelate.
It’s more than honorific. A prelate’s elevation to the Cardinalate carries with it awesome duties and responsiblities.. . . have the duty to help and support Peter’s Successor in carrying out the apostolic task entrusted to him in the service of the Church.
It’s still a personal honor, I’m not trying to minimize the importance of being a cardinal…but it’s not a rank of holy orders…it’s not deacon, priest, bishop, cardinal, pope.Frommi:
I disagree slightly with your statement that:
It’s more than this.
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official in the Catholic Church. It is the highest **hierarchical dignity ** in the Catholic Church, ranking just below the Pope.
As a body, the College of Cardinals governs the Catholic Church during the interregnum.
Many of the Cardinals are tasked to assist the Pope in the discharge of his “Petrine Ministry” in the universal Church. Some become the Pope’s “alter egos” in the Curia.
As Pope Benedict XVI aptly observed, the Cardinals:
It’s more than honorific. A prelate’s elevation to the Cardinalate carries with it awesome duties and responsiblities.
I don’t disagree at all. All I was saying is that Cardinal is a personal honor in this sense…The bestowal of the rank and title of Cardinal is not merely honorific. Such bestowal carries with it rights and obligations.
Actually…Cardinal O’Malley isn’t any such thing yet…he’s a cardinal designate at best…but until the consistory he has none of the honors or regalia associated with the whole cardinal thing.Perhaps I am misunderstanding the meaning of an “honorific title.”
But the rank and title of “Cardinal,” at least in the modern sense and according to our extant Code of Canons and to other Church laws, is NOT merely honorific. It carries specifically defined duties.
Let’s take the case of (now) His Eminence, Cardinal O’Malley of Boston. In addition to his duties as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Boston, he is now, among others:
(1) a member of the College of Cardinals, whose eligible members like him have the right and the obligation to elect the successor of the Supreme Pontiff;
(2) obliged to participate in the congregations (ordinary or extraordinay) of the Sacred College for the continuing governance of the Church during the interregnum (period between Pope’s death and the lawful election of his successor); and
(3) on call to provide advice and counsel to the Pope, individually or in collegial fashion during ordinary and extraordinary consistories of the College of Cardinals.
I honestly don’t think you can resign or be kicked out of the college of cardinals…but I’d never thought about it.A bishop/priest elevated to the Cardinalate remains a Cardinal for life, unless he resigns or is “degraded” by the Pope.
This exercise is only to re-emphasize the rank and importance of our Cardinals, who represent only a chosen few among the world’s Catholic prelates. By tradition and practice, any one of them is the next Pope.
There’s at least 1 who resigned in the past hundred years or so, let me find him and I’ll post it.I honestly don’t think you can resign or be kicked out of the college of cardinals…but I’d never thought about it.
BILLOT, S.J., Louis (1846-1931)
Birth. January 12, 1846, Sierck-les-Bains, diocese of Metz, France.
Education. Seminary of Metz, Metz; Seminary of Bordeaux, Bordeaux; Seminary of Blois, Blois.
Priesthood. Ordained, May 22, 1869, Blois. Joined the Society of Jesus, November 25, 1869, Angers; final vows, February 2, 1883, Laval. Pastoral work, Paris, 1875-1878; Laval, 1878-1879. Faculty member of the Catholic University of Angers, 1879-1882; of the Jesuit Scholasticate of Ile de Jersey, 1882-1885; of the Pontifical Gregorian University, dogmatic theology, Rome, 1885-1910. Consultor of the Holy Office, June 19, 1909.
Cardinalate. Created cardinal deacon in the consistory of November 27, 1911; received the red hat and the deaconry of S. Maria in via Lata, November 30, 1911. Participated in the conclaves of 1914 and 1922. One of the three cardinal presidents of the Pontifical Academy “S. Tommaso”, Rome, together with Cardinals Benedetto Lorenzelli and Michele Lega, February 24, 1915. Member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, February 6, 1923. Due to his sympathy for the movement Action Française, condemned by Pius XI, resigned the cardinalate, September 13, 1927. Resignation accepted by the pope in a letter of September 21, 1927; announced to the cardinals in the consistory of December 19, 1927. Only one to resign the cardinalate in the twentieth century.
Death. December 18, 1931, Jesuit Novitiate of Galloro, near Ariccia, province of Rome. Buried, Jesuit Chapel, Campo Verano Cemetery, Rome.
Bibliography. Bitremieux, Joseph. “Le R.P. Louis Billot.” Ephemerides Theoloqicae Lovanienses, IX (1932), 292-295. Lebreton, J. “Son Eminence le cardinal Billot.” Etudes, IV (1911), 514-525; Le Floch, Henri. Le Cardinal Billot, lumière de la théologie. Paris: Beauchesne, 1947.
Links. Biography, in Spanish; biography, also in Spanish with emphasis on his theological work; and another biography, in German.
Boston’s archbishop, O’Malley, is not a cardinal. Cardinal Law is a “Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna” and Archbishop emeritus of Boston.Boston’s Cardinal is still alive and of voting age in the form of Cardinal Law.