There is an unverified report on X that Archbishop Dominique Mathieu of Tehran, Iran, will be elevated to the position of Cardinal.
Archbishop Dominique Mathieu of Tehran, Iran
If so, congratulations to Archbishop Mathieu. Please keep him, Iran and peace in the Middle East in your prayers.
Cardinal
After reading that report, I realized that I was a bit vague as to the job of a Cardinal!
What we do know comes mostly from the media, where cardinals are often depicted as remote and formidable figures in their scarlet robes who help lead the Church and gather together in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope.
The pope alone decides who is to be appointed as Cardinal. A cardinal is a priest or a bishop who has been named by the pope to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
In the past, some lay people were appointed to the rank of cardinal, but since 1917 all cardinals must be ordained as a priest and be “of outstanding learning, piety, judgment and ability.” In 1962, Pope John XXIII commanded that each cardinal should be consecrated a bishop, if he was not already one. (Which seems logical because the rank of cardinal was not established by Christ.)
Duties
Cardinals have three main duties:
to guide and assist the pope in the government of the Church (sometimes with a special ‘mission’);
Together to direct the affairs of the church on the death of a pontiff and then,
To discern & elect the new pontiff in a conclave.
The new Pope is typically—but not necessarily!—elected from the College of Cardinals. One caveat: the right to participate in a conclave is limited to cardinals who have not reached the age of 80 years by the day the vacancy occurs.
Numbers of Cardinals have varied over the centuries and at one point in the Middle Ages there were only FOUR! As of September this year, there were 235 cardinals, of whom 122 were eligible to vote in a conclave. [Wiki]
Three kinds of Cardinal
Cardinal bishops are senior members of the College of Cardinals who are engaged in full-time service in the Roman Curia. The patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches are also assigned this rank.
Cardinal priests are officials of the Roman Curia or bishops whose dioceses are outside Rome. (They still hold title to a particular church in Rome, a historical reminder of the earlier custom of the clergy of Rome participating in the election of the pope.)
Cardinal deacons are titular bishops assigned to full-time service in the Roman Curia or are theologians honored by the pope for their contribution to the Church. (They hold title to one of the deaconries of Rome.)
Symbols
Cardinals receive a skullcap called a zucchetto; a four-cornered silk hat or biretta and a ring.
Most people think that cardinals wear red! They wear scarlet—a custom from 1245 when Pope Innocent IV bestowed the scarlet biretta upon the cardinals to remind them that they must be prepared to shed their blood for the Church.
Biretta
Zucchetto
The Cardinals’ Oath
I [name and surname], Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, promise and swear to be faithful henceforth and forever, while I live, to Christ and His Gospel, being constantly obedient to the Holy Roman Apostolic Church, to Blessed Peter in the person of the Supreme Pontiff [current pope’s name], and of his canonically elected Successors; to maintain communion with the Catholic Church always, in word and deed; not to reveal to any one what is confided to me in secret, nor to divulge what may bring harm or dishonor to Holy Church; to carry out with great diligence and faithfulness those tasks to which I am called by my service to the Church, in accord with the norms of the law.
So help me Almighty God.
Kevin Hay
You can follow Kevin on X @kevinhay77