Woman Cardinal confusion!?

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A great Graphic Designer you shall become! Just like my older brother 😁
I’m actually getting into graphic design. I’m also my schools assistant editor for the yearbook of this year. So thanks!!! šŸ™‚
 
It’s not photoshopped, she’s just being eccentric and possibly blasphemous and wearing a costume.
 
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Yes, Cardinal is not a divinely-instituted position, but it’s bad form nonetheless because of what Cardinal originally is.

A Cardinal, in its most primitive form, was simply a cleric (priest or deacon) ā€œincardinatedā€ in one of the parishes within the Diocese of Rome, and shortly thereafter, in the surrounding suburbicarian sees. So from the beginning, Cardinals have always been tied to the clerical state. When you became, say, a parish priest or a permanently assigned parish deacon in the Diocese of Rome, you were a Cardinal.

This is also why to this day, anyone named to the College always receives a titular church in Rome. It’s also the basis of the three degrees of Cardinal: Cardinal-Bishop, Cardinal-Priest, and Cardinal-Deacon. Back in the day, they were really bishops, priests, and deacons of Rome (and area; the Diocese of Rome, of course, has only one Bishop).

It’s also why Cardinals are named Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, not the Holy Catholic Church. Because again, they are still, at least in title, clerics of the Diocese of Rome.

Women cannot be clerics, and calling a woman a Cardinal carries implications that have no basis in history and open cans of worms that really should be left alone. It implies or at least carries the optics that the woman is in the clerical state, and that is not possible.
 
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All valid points… but the office has already seen significant evolution. It is no longer the case that the general Roman clergy are Cardinals. Only very eminent bishops are created Cardinals today…
 
Oh, and before the question of ā€œlayā€ Cardinals comes up, in case someone wants to defend the idea of women being admitted to the college, ā€œlayā€ Cardinals were not lay. They received first tonsure, which placed them in the clerical state, and they were admitted to minor orders. Of course, this all ceased in 1917.
 
LIfeSite News? Really? How many times are Catholics going to read this drivel.
:roll_eyes:
 
Only very eminent bishops are created Cardinals today…
This is not correct. We have non-bishops in the College of Cardinals right now and have had many since the pontificate of Pope Saint John Paul II.
 
If a man who wasn’t in Holy Orders was elected pope he would have to be immediately ordained a deacon, then a priest, and then a bishop. Only then, once a bishop, would he become Bishop of Rome and thus pope.
A non-cleric can be elected Pope. He would have to be male. If a lay man or deacon is elected, he is immediately ordained bishop, directly.
Can. 332 §1. The Roman Pontiff obtains full and supreme power in the Church by his acceptance of legitimate election together with episcopal consecration. Therefore, a person elected to the supreme pontificate who is marked with episcopal character obtains this power from the moment of acceptance. If the person elected lacks episcopal character, however, he is to be ordained a bishop immediately.
 
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Thank you @twf for explaining in a way I understand what the Cardinal position is in the Catholic Church. I always thought they were some bishop-assistants to the Pope so a clerical position.
 
Thank you for the correction, Father. I was speaking generally, as I did allude to priests who have been created Cardinals in an earlier post… but I thought it was an exceedingly rare occurrence.
 
Well, this would be one way to finally and forever stop SSPX-Vatican negotiations…and to subsequently swell attendance at SSPX chapels…
 
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Well, this would be one way to finally and forever stop SSPX-Vatican negotiations…and to subsequently swell attendance at SSPX chapels…
Schism is never the answer.

Give me obedience to Peter or give me death!
 
While the Cardinals are the ones casting ballots, cardinals aren’t the only options. Theoretically an unmarried Catholic man can be made Pope, and in fact some Popes were previously monks. Additionally being a cardinal doesn’t put someone in the running for Pope.

So a female Cardinal wouldn’t be eligible for Pope, but she could still take part in the election process.
 
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