There are 2 ways by which a Cardinal is “degraded,” as mentioned in passing by provision #36 of the 1996 Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis:
It’s by tradition AND practice because of provision #53 of the afrorecited UDG, in conjunction with the provisions of the Codes of Canons (East and West).
Amadeus said:
It’s just kind of idle speculation…a non cardinal hasn’t been elected pope since the 14th century…
Yes unfortunately so, including loads in England and Wales
America now has roughly 11 percent of the voting cardinals for the next Pope…if they voted as a bloc, a candidate would be 16% of the way towards election as supreme pontiff.Yes unfortunately so, including loads in England and Wales
It’s not fair - America gets so many and we get so few
I wish we had another - just one more (like in the north - that would be logical)
I agree with you - very much so.
Frommi, Thanks for saying exactly what I was thinking. I’m not too sure on how a Cardinal is selected, but it seems to me that more Cardinals should come from a place where there is standing room only at Mass and I’m not talking about the states.
Since when do cardinals from the same country vote as a bloc and ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit? Even if they did, 16% is hardly enough to get anyone elected.
I highly doubt the american cardinals vote as a bloc. But holy spirit or no holy spirit, they are going to cast a vote that is colored by the concerns of the American church.
I couldn’t disagree with you more about Sean O’Malley. He inherited a tremendously difficult situation in the archdiocese of Boston and under the circumstances has done a great job. Yes, he has angered some people, particularly parishoners who were displaced because of their church closing. Most of the parishoners faced with church closings handled it gracefully and were integrated into other welcoming parishes but a minority engaged in outright dissent by occupying those churches slated for closing. The only thing that this did was create disunity within the archdiocese. O’Malley was faced with difficult financial situations and he had to act or else the archdiocese would have imploded. For the most part he handled the sex abuse cases with great sensitivity and he settled most of those cases relatively quickly. Archbishop O’Malley is a caring, humble and faith filled man who courageously stood by the church’s teachings on tough issues. He’s been a godsend for us here in Boston.
Precedence within the Church:
I thought that O’Malley tried to keep the money from closed parishes for the archdiocese instead of it following the people to their new parishes. Wasn’t he told by Rome that he couldn’t do that? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.
The archdiocese intended that the remaining assets from closed parishes would be put into a fund that would later be split up and given to parishes with the most need. The archdiocese also would pay for any debts at parishes that were in debt.
I’m surprised there aren’t more Mexican, Central American and South American Cardinals. These are regions with huge numbers of Catholics.
I would say that we have a universal Church, not an American one. Some of the same concerns here in the United States are concerns elsewhere, and I believe that cardinals can tell the difference between those things that only affect their own country and issues that affect the universal Church.
Cardinal Maida of Detroit was made a Cardinal even though Cardinal Szoka is still alive and working in the Vatican.