UNITED KINGDOM
The Tablet
10 January 2014 by Michael Walsh
There was no British voice in the conclave that elected Pope Francis. The Cardinal-Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Keith O’Brien, who stepped down following allegations against him of sexual misconduct, quite properly opted out. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Emeritus Archbishop of Westminster, though in Rome at the time, was too old to cast a vote.
Those who felt put out by this apparent downgrading of the Church in this island, will now be mollified. After almost five years in Westminster, Vincent Nichols is to be made a cardinal, Pope Francis announced today. Being made a cardinal is rather like being elevated to the House of Lords. Indeed, they are even rather grander than peers because in internationally accepted protocol they rank just below princes of royal blood. Consequently they are surrounded by great deference and much flummery, just the sort of things Pope Francis inveighs against.
Hence, as the latest “honours list” emerges from the Vatican, I can’t help thinking that it is about time someone asked what cardinals are for. In principle there are three ranks of cardinals: bishops, priests and deacons – a division which is a throwback to the Middle Ages. Now, sacramentally, they are all, or almost all (with some recent exceptions), bishops. In the Middle Ages, cardinals became agitated for a time because their office carried no sacramental seal, but they got over that by regarding themselves as half of the papacy, and so laying hold of half the papal income. Their power was eventually broken by Pope Sixtus V (r1585-90), who reorganised his court so that the “college” of cardinals could no longer effectively work as a single body. To give them something to do, put them in command of separate departments, the Roman “congregations” that still operate today.
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