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Although Scottish archbishop Keith Michael Patrick O’Brien – who has just been divested of his cardinalatial rights and powers (participation in the Conclave and in Consistories) – gets to formally keep the title of cardinal, it remains just that, a decorative title devoid of any significance.
As such, he joins a list of 23 other cardinals who have lost this position from the 15th century onwards. The list of legitimate and illegitimate cardinals who for various reasons lost their rights and powers as cardinals between 1440 and today was published by Italian religious news blog Il Sismografo and is based on documentation provided by Salvador Miranda.
The pseudo-cardinals, the monk and the Duke of Valentinois
The list begins with the names of four former cardinals who lived in the 15th century: Johann Grünwalder, Otón de Moncada y de Luna, Wincenty Kotz Dębna and Bartolomeo Vitelleschi.
They are considered “pseudo-cardinals” because they were all elevated to the Cardinalate between 1440 and 1449 by the Antipope Felix V. The case of young Ardicino Della Porta, who was created cardinal in March 1489, was quite different.
Three years later he retired to a Camaldolese monastery with the Pope’s permission. He was summoned back to Rome to take part in the Conclave that elected Rodrigo Borgia Pope Alexander VI. He fell ill and died a short while later.
The list of former cardinals that lived in this century ends with one of Alexander VI’s illegitimate sons, Cesare. His father had him appointed bishop, archbishop and then cardinal in 1493. Five years later he asked his father for permission to withdraw from ecclesiastical life, which he obtained, resigning from the cardinalate. Continue reading
Sources
- Vatican Insider
- Image: aleteia
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News category: Features.
