THE CARDINALATE

New Zealand Tablet, 11 January 1912, Page 20

THE CARDINALATE

Empowered to designate the Head of the Church, and constituting with him as . auxiliaries and counsellors the :■- spiritual body known as the Sacred : College, : the Cardinals of the Catholic Church rank next to the Sovereign ; Pontiff ,in ecclesiastical dignity; and official importance (writes the Rev. M. Kenny," S.J., in America). C Though' not of divine origin nor essential to the . constitution of the Church, the office grew with the Church's external development as by natural necessity, and had risen to' its /present eminence; before the discoverer of America; was born. .;,'

It was only in the twelfth century that the Sacred College was definitely constituted substantially as- it exists . to-day; -but the beginnings from which it grew had their .roots in the Catacombs. ■ The word ' car- : dinal ' (from car do, a ; - hinge) was firsts applied, in the sense of principal, to , the clergy who were .permanently and officially attached: to a particular church, then to the archpriest of that church. , In Rome, according to some, twenty-five ,' titles' or churches in-■■ which the Sacraments were administered arid, the liturgical offices celebrated, were established in the first century, according to others from the second to the fifth, and the priest in charge was called the presbyter Cardinalis. Such presbyters were entrusted by the Pope with the supervision of discipline ; and other ecclesiastical and administrative functions in,the Roman See. The title of . Cardinal priest, which was ■ at first extended to archpriests elsewhere, was soon restricted ?to \ the ; arch-pres-byters of Rome, and was definitely confined to the Roman Cardinals by Pius V. The number of titles was increased, but.the rearrangement of titular churches, begun by Innocent 111. and completed by Paul V., remained fixed until; Leo XIII. added the Church of San Vitale. The titles are now fifty-three, though by • the ordination of Pope Sixtus V. the actual number of Cardinal priests is limited;to fifty

Of Equal Antiquity are the Cardinal Deacons, who may be said to have sprung from the graves of the martyrs. Pope St. Clement (88-97) is said to have divided Rome into seven regional : districts, in each of which a rotary or deacon was appointed to collect the Acts of the martyrs. St. Evaristus, his successor, charged them also with/bearing witness to the teaching of the bishops, and Pope St. Fabian (236-250) enlarged their duties, appointed seyen subdeacons to assist them,: and had buildings (diaconiae) erected, in connection with a neighboring church, for the reception; of the poor and other charitable works in ? £he -r cemeteries of the martyrs whose Acts they recorded. ; Besides being official .'executors of the Papal charities, the regional deacons assisted the Pontiff; at Mass and ;at the" liturgical services in the principal Papal churches, and, being gradually j assigned to f disciplinary and. other ecclesiastical functions of continually extending scope, attained a; fixity of relation to the Church of Rome, which made the term Cardinal Deacon analogous to that of Cardinal Priest. With the change of Roman topography other charitable institutions replaced, the original deaconries.. There.were eighteen under Gregory the Great, and these are still existent, but the actual number A of Cardinal Deacons was reduced to, fourteen by Sixtus V.

~ As the Papal; headship of ; the Church.became more externally manifest arid ecclesiastical business accordingly increased, the Popes called in the.seven neighboring or ' suburbicarian/ bishops to /assist-; them in counsel .at synodal , meetings- and represent them at episcopal functions; and these were : known as Cardinal Bishops. When Porto was in ruins Rufina was joined to it, thus reducing the Cardinal Bishops to. six, a number which 1 was;made, permanent by Sixtus V. By a Decretal of Alexander 111., 1159, the three orders of ; Cardinals - were definitively : unified '., into > one body, to which the election of ;. the successor of'St.: Peter- was exclusively attached. Thereafter they were the only official < legates arid counsellors of the Pope. ; Sixtus V. fixed their number at seventy, which has been seldom reached.

From" the earliest period, therefore, the Cardinals, in various degrees, were assistants" of the Pope in the care of the poor, in liturgical functions, in the administration of Papal finances and possessions, and the f disposition of important ecclesiastical business: Their manifold activity was exercised ;in the Consistory, that is, the formal assembly of the Cardinals under the presidency ;of ■' the Pope ; ; There they (dealt with practically all the;affairs of ? Christendom, for when Christen--dom was Catholic religious and secular matters ' usually touched or overlapped, and hence they gradually outranked bishops and archbishops, and ; towards the fourteenth century even patriarchs.' ? Innocent 111. granted them the privilege of the red hat, and extended to all the scarlet robe -previously worn by Papal legates? They have a ring 'with* sapphire stone, and may wear the pectoral cross even '. in the presence of the; Pope. Leo X. placed them immediately after the Pope in order of precedence; in secular courts they rank with princes of the blood' royal, and they were long acknowledged as equals by Emperors and Kings. ; - The Cardinals Have Charge .the Roman Congrev gations, ~.■■.' ' and the Pope alone is their ecclesiastical judge. Among other rights and privileges, they have place and vote in general councils, and they alone can be sent abroad as legates a latere. In private 1 Consistory. they counsel the Holy Father; on the nominations :of ■ Cardinals and bishops, on the conclusion of concordats, and on all important,, ecclesiastical' and politico-ecclesiastical: matters; arid on the death of the Pontiff they assume the management of necessary .Church affairs and proceed to ; elect his successor. Their powers' and duties were increased and simplified in our own day J > The Congregations • of Cardinals/including, among; others the important Consistorial V Congregation and the ' Holy Office, established or regulated by Sixtus V., have been completely reorganised by Pius X. according to the great Constitution Sapienti Consilio, June 29, 1908, which enlarged and demarcated;; the powers of the Roman Cardinals and made the famous Immense of Sixtus V. applicable to modern conditions. .-.';/■ , The Popes have been always free in the nomination of Cardinals, but the Tridentine decrees, enforced by Sixtus V., and ratified by the Vatican Council, ordained that all Christian nations should be represented in the Sacred College; ;;• It was also established- that the College of Cardinals should contain doctors of theology, four at least to be taken from the mendicant Orders, and that every person nominated must possess the qualifications required of a -bishop. Their creation, which is the function of the Pope, is effected l \ by the publication of their 'names' in secret Consistory. The new dignitary, who has been informed of his nomination some weeks in - advance, is invested by the: Pope with the rochet and red biretta, and a few days later, in public Consistory, with the Cardinal's hat, while >'--

The Holy Father Pronounces the Words:

'To the glory of the omnipotent Godi and ; the honor of the Holy See receive the red hat, the mark of the singular dignity of the Cardinalate, whereby it is signified;that,- for the exaltation of the holy/Faith, the peace - and quiet of the Christian people, ? and the increase ;; and; permanence :. of the Holy ; Roman Church, you should show yourself fearless even unto death and the shedding of your blood, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of. the Holy Ghost.' The Pope makes the Sign of the;Cross thrice over the new Cardinal, and in' secret Consistory :. confers on him the assigns ; him his title or diaconia, arid performs the ceremony of the opening and ; closing of the mouth; signifying his ; duty and right to v observe secrecy and express his opinion matters presented to his consideration. - A Papal Ablegate conveys the red biretta to foreign Cardinals who " cannot attend the Consistory/ but the red ' hat is always conferredv> in public Consistory by the hands of the Sovereign Pontiff.- ' " "* V ■■:■■ ■■ -' ". ' ■"■■ - ■- ■.:..