Posted on 10/26/2003 9:13:14 AM PST by american colleen
Newspaper says elderly cardinals seeking vote in conclave
The Italian daily La Repubblica reported yesterday that 59 octogenarian cardinals have written to Pope John Paul II asking him to reinstate their right to elect the next Pope.
Pope Paul VI ruled in 1970 that cardinals would relinquish their right to vote in the conclave after their 80th birthday.
Two of Australia's three cardinals will lose their vote by the middle of next year. Former Sydney Archbishop Cardinal Edward Clancy (pictured right, with Cardinal Pell) turns 80 in December, and former Vatican official Cardinal Edward Cassidy turns 80 next June.
La Repubblica said that the 59 cardinals aged 80 and over have written to the Holy Father, asking him to reinstate their voting rights. The Pope is yet to reply.
"Without the right to vote we are half-cardinals, second division cardinals," the paper quoted one octogenarian cardinal as saying.
Currently, the college of cardinal electors comprises 135 cardinals under the age of 80. 59 others are over age.
"All the cardinals over 80 feel this way. It's an inconceivable rule. A cardinal is there, first and foremost, to elect a pope and thereafter to follow him," said another.
Italian Cardinal Giovanni Cheli, 85, told the paper that "in effect, we feel a little robbed," though he personally had not made an issue of it "because Paul VI must have had his reasons for taking his decision."
Elderly cardinals in revolt over voting power: report
Elderly Roman Catholic cardinals are in revolt over Vatican rules banning them from taking part in the election of the next pope, and have requested Pope John Paul II to abolish the over-80 age limit, the daily La Republica reported Thursday.
The newspaper said that 59 cardinals aged 80 and over have written to the pontiff asking him to reinstate their voting rights, abolished by pope Paul VI in 1970.
The pontiff, who is 83, has not replied, the paper said.
"Without the right to vote we are half-cardinals, second division cardinals," the paper quoted one octogenarian cardinal as saying.
Currently, the college of cardinal electors comprises 135 cardinals under the age of 80.
Fifty-nine others are over age.
"All the cardinals over 80 feel this way. It's an inconceivable rule. A cardinal is there, first and foremost, to elect a pope and thereafter to follow him," said another.
Italian Cardinal Giovanni Cheli, 85, told the paper that "in effect, we feel a little robbed," though he personally had not made an issue of it "because Paul VI must have had his reasons for taking his decision."
Why did Pope Paul IV ban cardinals past the age of 80 from voting in the conclaves?
No, it's the same article, repeated.
Must have been written by someone over 80.
Must have been written by someone over 80.
LOL! But the pope himself is over 80 and choosing cardinals so I'm not sure we can blanket everyone over age 80 as being senile and incapable of working with the Holy Spirit.
Love that guy.
Thanks for the input. I guess I'll have to google around and find out why Pope Paul VI did what he did. If what you say is true, then all those old cardinals are dead anyway and it would seem like that decree should have been a "one time only" act... and if the decree was to minimize the possible senility problem then it seems that the Holy Spirit was ignored and that no one should be pope after age 80.
There must be some other reason. (?)
I have no idea, other than the theory that Paul VI caught a lot of grief from guys like Ottaviani (over 80) and a few others over the Novus Ordo, and he might have thought ultra-oldsters would be nothing but reactionaries.
I doubt JP II will let them vote.
He wouldn't have named this new batch of cardinals if he had had an intention of letting these octogenarians vote.
We don't really know how much the Pope is involved in day-to-day decisions.
The odds of an octogenarian being on cruise-control is much greater, don't you think, than a guy in his 60's?
If true, that is terrible and really, personally "stacking the deck" - and assuming that most of the younger cardinals were progressives. Seems like PPVI could have used those "reactionaries" when he promulgated HV.
The odds of an octogenarian being on cruise-control is much greater, don't you think, than a guy in his 60's?
Sure, but the Holy Spirit doesn't play into that mode of thought at all.
The Holy Spirit works through our human natures, He doesn't supercede them. A cardinal who's out of it is going to be out of it, unless the Holy Spirit Himself takes over his body.
Even Democrats cringe when Byrd and Hollings open their mouths, of late.
It's likely a man like Karol Wojtyla wouldn't have been elected if the over-80 cardinals had been able to vote in 1978.
So does JP II, which is why it is likely he will not restore their voting privileges.
I'm probably out of my league here and this is going over my head -- BUT I took it to be a refutation of the senility over age 80 reason for eliminating men from making important decisions - in the secular or religious worlds. Nothing more and nothing less.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.