THE DIGNITY OF CARDINAL.

New Zealand Tablet, 2 March 1877, Page 5

THE DIGNITY OF CARDINAL.

A correspondent writes to ask what is the meaning of Cavdi na l Pries I, Cardinal Deacon and Cardinal Subdeacon. We do not kn ow of any sueli recognised title as that of Cardinal Subdeacon iv ti e Church. There are Cardinal Bishops, Cardinal Priests and Cardinal Deacons. When a Bishop of any of the Sees about the city of Horne — six, we believe, in number — which are suffragan to the See of Rome, and of which the Pope himself is, therefore, tue immediate Metropolitan — belongs to the Cardinalate, he is called a Carainal Bishop, or, to give the title more fully, a, Cardinal of the Order of Bishops. Any other prelate or priest elevated to the purple placed by the Holy Father in charge of a church in the city 1 of Home, and taking his title from that church of his — as, for in1 stance, his Eminence Cardinal Cullen does from San Pietvo in Moni torio — is styled a Cardinal Priest, or Cardinal of the Order of ■ Priests, without any regard to his other rank in the Church. Then, the remainder of the Sacred College — that is to say, those Cardinals I who are not Bishops of the Roman suburban Sees, or pastors, by | Papal appointment, of churches in Rome itself — are Cardinal Deacons. They need not necessarily be priests and therefore, as plainly follows, need not necessarily be qualified to offer up the sacrifice of the Ma««. Vvif- then- must have taken the vow of celibacy, and must at le at have been ad aitted to minor Orders. There can never be more uiu.ii oi*. vju,io.iual Bishops at one time, and the number of Cardinal Deacons never goes over ten or twelve. The full strength , of the Sacred College is nxed at seventy Cardinals, and of its actual members a proportion of about three-fourths are Cardinals " of the [ Order of Priests."—' Dublin Weekly News.'