Women Cardinals

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Mike Dye:

I believe that John XXIII made it manditory that a cardinal had to be a Bishop before he could hold that office!
Mike

That is true but Pope John Paul II appointed a priest to be a cardinal and waved the requirment of being a bishop.

While I do not think there will ever be a female cardinal, no pope can bind a later pope on any matters of discipline.

 

[Brendan]

Mike Dye:

I believe that John XXIII made it manditory that a cardinal had to be a Bishop before he could hold that office!
Mike

But any sitting Pontiff can either dispense from that requirement, or remove it all together.

Cardinal Dulles, for example, was not elevated to the episcopate (at his own request) when he was inducted into the College of Cardinals. Pope John Paul dispensed that requirement and Cardinal Dulles remains a priest, not a bishop.