Last week’s consistory was unusual for a number of reasons. Firstly, according to the norm set by Blessed Paul VI and confirmed by St. John Paul II, there can be only 120 cardinals with voting rights in the event of a conclave to choose the next Pope. Read more
Posts Tagged ‘college of cardinals’
New Swedish cardinal wants women advisors
Thursday, June 29th, 2017
The new Swedish cardinal, Anders Arborelius, has suggested Pope Francis consider creating a special advisory body of women. Their role would be similar to that of the College of Cardinals and would offer more opportunity for women’s leadership in the church. Francis made Arborelius Sweden’s first cardinal in a consistory on Wednesday. He said he Read more
Cardinals are called to be grandfathers says Pope
Thursday, June 29th, 2017
Pope Francis rejects the idea that the church is a “gerontocracy” ruled by old men. While it’s true many may need help to get up and down the small steps to the altar for Communion, Francis says it doesn’t automatically make them old. In fact, he has a surprising sounding description for them: “We aren’t Read more
Pope Francis not having traditional meeting cardinals
Monday, June 26th, 2017
Pope Francis won’t be convening the traditional pre-consistory meeting before creating five new cardinals tomorrow. The Vatican says the consistory will have a courtesy meeting today and Mass will be celebrated tomorrow, which is the Solemnity of the Saints Apostles Peter and Paul. At this time Francis will impose the Pallia on the new cardinals. Read more
Cardinal Sarah and failures at the college of cardinals
Friday, June 10th, 2016
The ability, or even tendency, to make stupid remarks is not, at least officially, a prerequisite for being made a curial cardinal. But neither does it seem to hurt the odds of one’s wearing a red biretta around Rome. In 2011, a Spanish bishop claimed that Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, then head of the Pontifical Council Read more
Oldest member of College of Cardinals dies aged 100
Tuesday, May 31st, 2016The former secretary to St John XXIII and the oldest member of the College of Cardinals died on May 26 at the age of 100. Italian Cardinal Loris Capovilla, who served St John XXIII before and after he became pope, died in Bergamo, near Milan. Cardinal Capovilla was born in Pontelongo, Italy, in 1915, and Read more
Cardinals reject Kasper’s proposals on divorce and communion
Tuesday, April 1st, 2014
Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposals to allow Communion for remarried divorcees got a frosty reception from many of his fellow cardinals at a recent meeting That is according to an Italian journalist writing about the February consistory at the Vatican. In an article for the Turin daily, La Stampa, on March 24, Marco Tosatti wrote that Read more
Gomez, Mahony and the ‘Sodano Rule’ – Vatican politics
Friday, February 15th, 2013
This column probably ought to carry a warning label: “The following piece of writing contains an apples-and-oranges comparison that may be hazardous to your intellectual health.” I’m going to compare two fights among senior churchmen, but the purpose is not to suggest they’re identical. Rather, it’s to understand what makes them different. The first term Read more
Questioning Church’s multicultural nature
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
US-dominated globalization is not compatible with cultures of the south. Among the 22 new cardinals receiving a biretta on February 18 from Pope Benedict XVI, 10 hold positions in the Roman Curia. Italians comprise seven of the 22, making them the largest group. Only three are from outside Europe or North America. So this consistory Read more