Cardinal bishop
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Cardinal Bishops, or Cardinals of the Episcopal Order, are among the most senior prelates of the Roman Catholic Church.
Originally this term referred specifically and exclusively to the men named to head the seven suburbicarian dioceses, who include the Dean of the College of Cardinals. In 1965 Pope Paul VI decreed in his motu proprio Ad purpuratorum patrum that Eastern Rite patriarchs who were named Cardinals would also be part of the episcopal order, ranked after the six Cardinal Bishops of the suburbicarian sees (who had been rendered strictly titular bishops of those sees by Pope John XXIII three years earlier). The Dean continues to always be one of the six suburbicarian bishops, though now elected by the six from their number rather than necessarily the longest-serving -- as he always adds the title of Ostia to his original suburbicarian diocese as a cardinal bishop, there are always six cardinal bishops though there are seven suburbicarian sees. The Latin Rite Patriarchs of Lisbon and Venice, while always made Cardinals at the consistory after they take possession of their sees, are made Cardinal Priests, not Cardinal Bishops.
The Cardinal Bishops are the only order of Cardinals who have always been required to be bishops, and in former times when a Cardinal of one of the lower orders became a Cardinal Bishop he was consecrated a bishop on that occasion. Since 1962 all Cardinals have been bishops with rare exceptions, but those cardinals exceptionally allowed to decline episcopal consecration remain ineligible to be Cardinal Bishops.
For a period ending in the mid 20th century, long-serving Cardinal Priests were entitled to fill vacancies that arose among the Cardinal Bishops, just as Cardinal Deacons of ten years' standing are still entitled to become Cardinal Priests. Since then Cardinals have been advanced to Cardinal Bishop (except for the Eastern Rite Patriarchs, no one ever joins the College of Cardinals as a Cardinal Bishop) exclusively by Papal appointment. Only leading figures close to the Pope can expect to be appointed.
Currently the Cardinal-Bishops of the suburbicarian diocese are:
- Angelo Cardinal Sodano, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Albano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Secretary of State
- Bernardin Cardinal Gantin, Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina, Dean emeritus, the senior prelate from Africa, long headed the Congregation for Bishops;
- Roger Cardinal Etchegaray, Cardinal Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina, Vice-Dean, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace;
- Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, Cardinal Bishop of Frascati, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, a leading figure in the Latin American church;
- Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops;
- Francis Cardinal Arinze, Cardinal Bishop of Velletri-Segni, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, widely regarded as the most Papabile African.
- Ignace Cardinal Daoud, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, former Patriarch of Antioch for the Syrians
- Stéphanos II Cardinal Ghattas, Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria Emeritus;
- Nasrallah Cardinal Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch for the Maronites .
External Links
- [List of All Cardinals by Precedence] by Giga-Catholic Information
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