The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
2 November 2003
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Christ’s message holds key, says Cardinal Pell
New cardinal-electors
Cardinal is ‘honoured and delighted’
New managing editor for Catholic Weekly
Wiggles help Vinnies
Change to super laws rejected
Service commemorates Night of broken glass
Don’t leave HSC study to the last minute
Poverty forum call
Italians come clean over holy water
‘Don’t change Medicare’
Hope on Smokey Mountain
New dean of education
‘Give generously’ appeal call
Passion added to atmosphere for players
Mother Teresa
Editorial: Be not afraid
Letters: Biblical errors?
Conversation: Donna Mulhearn, human shield and crusader for kids - Back to Iraq
with ‘lots of love, hugs and care’
The freedom of God
Jesus ‘Lord and healer’
Oath of Fidelity
Sandhills and history
The Italian connection
New deal for deaf high school students
New college Campus
US post
115 years in the sun
Rose Bay victory
Life of the ageing priest
Companions on a Redemptorist’s journey to his final vows
‘Richest year of my life’
New cardinal-electors
Of the 30 new cardinals inducted into the College of Cardinals, 26 were bishops who now become cardinal-electors.
The remaining four were priests who have already reached the age of 80, so for them the rank of cardinal is a great honour without new duties.
Each of the cardinals is now also the titular pastor of a church in the Rome diocese, since the College of Cardinals represents the clergy of Rome.
The new cardinals prepared for the consistory by purchasing an entire new clerical wardrobe.
While a bishop wears a purple soutane for formal ceremonies (or black trimmed with purple for ordinary affairs), a cardinal wears the bright red that symbolises his willingness to die for the faith if necessary.
A complete tailored outfit for a new cardinal, from red soutane to red socks, usually costs between $3500 and $9000.
Ordinarily that cost is absorbed by the cardinal’s diocese or religious order.
Nowadays the square, red silk hat which marks a cardinal’s status as a Prince of the Church is rarely worn after the consistory, although cardinals continue to wear red vestments.
The best known duty of a cardinal is, of course, to participate in the election of a new pope, a function performed by the College of Cardinals since the role was established by Pope Nicholas II in 1059.
Cardinals also play a consultative role, working with Vatican dicasteries and occasionally gathering in consistories.
There are three sorts of consistories – ordinary private, ordinary public and extraordinary.
In an “ordinary private” consistory, the cardinals who are working at the Vatican or visiting Rome gather to vote their formal approval of decrees prepared by the Roman Curia, such as the decrees authorising beatifications or canonisations.
An “ordinary public” consistory is an event like this one, in which cardinals gather from all around the world for the installation of new members of their college.
And an “extraordinary” consistory is called by the pope when he wants to consult the college about a particular matter.
Since 1919, Church law has stipulated that cardinals must be priests.
In 1962, Pope John XXIII added the requirement that they must normally be bishops, or be ordained as bishops when they become cardinals.
But the pope can waive that rule, choosing simple priests as cardinals. And these priests can choose to remain simple priests – as the French Jesuit Henri de Lubac did when he became a cardinal in 1983.
The College of Cardinals is divided into cardinal-bishops, cardinal-priests, and cardinal-deacons.
These distinctions are now almost entirely honorific. They are reminders of the historic origin of the college, which was born in the 12th century as an assembly of the clergy of Rome.
At that time, the bishops of the four surrounding dioceses were the cardinal-bishops, the pastors of the city’s major parishes were the cardinal-priests, and the deacons who assisted the Bishop of Rome were the cardinal-deacons.
The term “cardinal” derives from the Latin word for “hinge”, since the cardinals were said to occupy a fixed position on which the future of the Church turned.