AlexScrivener
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User ID: 139
AlexScrivener
1mo ago
Francis
You're right that the rule can be changed at any time by the pope, except that the pope didn't actually change it. The 120 cardinal electors rule remains in place.
Doesn't matter, the Pope can do whatever he wants (on this matter). The law cannot bind the Pope, because the law is an instrument of the Pope. He has supreme unlimited absolute authority over the rules for creating cardinals, and can change or ignore them as he sees fit. He cannot be bound by his own authority or the authority of his predecessors.
They go over this in detail at about 35 minutes into the podcast
AlexScrivener
1mo ago
If this is a topic in which you are actually interested, rather than simply a convenient opportunity to bemoan Christianity, here is a recent podcast of two canon lawyers discussing exactly this topic
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/ep-202-the-next-benevacantism
More or less, the rule was only put in place by Paul VI in 1975, and a Pope can't bind future Popes. The rule can be changed at any time by the Pope, and papal canon law cannot bind the Pope because it derives its authority directly from him.
AlexScrivener
2mo ago
The whole article and the phrase which inspired it seem like desperate groping in the intellectual dark for the concept of The Principle Of Double Effect, and an illuminating example of the problems which arise when it is lacking.
The inability to distinguish between intended and unintended effects, and forseen and unforseen consequences, is lethal to a moral evaluation of human action.
AlexScrivener
5mo ago
First Things article about secular monks
Maybe this one? https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/03/secular-monks
AlexScrivener
11mo ago
Francis’s progressive allies in the committee which chooses new bishops would rather leave an oddly large number of dioceses vacant than appoint them.
Not saying this is definitely wrong, but also a third of priests asked to become bishops refuse:
As Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the bishops’ dicastery from 2010 to 2023, said last year: “Since the beginning of my mandate, I have seen the number of priests who do not accept the episcopal appointment increase from 1 in 10 to about 3 in 10 in 12 years.”
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/the-catholic-churchs-bishop-elect
The canon lawyers disagree with you.
The part about creating cardinals is a restriction on the person who creates cardinals, the Pope, who can ignore it at will.
The part that says no cardinal elector may be denied his right to elect the Pope is a restriction on the people who run the papal election, who are not the pope. They cannot dispense with it.
It might be that the Pope is in fact making up rules as he goes along, and you could make an argument that it would be better if the last 4 Popes had actually changed the wording of the law rather than just ignoring it, but none of that changes how the law actually applies and none of it changes the rules that require all cardinal electors to be allowed to vote.
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