It's reigning Cardinals

There was a protest outside St. Peter's Basilica by women with red umbrellas from the Women’s Ordination Conference.  They claim to be, “The uncompromising feminist voice for women’s ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church since.....1975”. 

They were all arrested and spent four hours in police custody

On the red umbrellas  

"Reform means women"

"More than half the church".

"Sexism is a Cardinal sin"

"Ordain women"

"It’s reigning men"

They gave leaflets to passing cardinals.

Some quotes from the Cardinals as they meet.

Cardinal Dolan

"We talk as friends, as brothers, with great charity and deep love for the Church about very practical issues."  "It was extraordinarily edifying." “To be with them - to speak with Cardinal Erdö from Budapest, who was so extraordinarily generous and hospitable, with Cardinal Dziwisz from Krakow, where nearly four million refugees have been welcomed in Poland - to be with these cardinals who are on the front line, and to hear about the challenges, but also to see how uplifting it is to be in service, and to hear them so grateful for the care of the world: That's a good thing.”

The new Cardinal Marengo, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, a missionary jurisdiction that covers the entire country of Mongolia.  Mongolia has now a very cosy relationship with China, just like the Catholic Church under Pope Francis.

“Asia is very important, it is the cradle of the world's great religions and religion is first and foremost an everyday reality there.”

Cardinal Steiner

"What we have always had as a force in the past is a Synodal Church.  Lay people from the indigenous peoples, bishops, priests - all participate in the different assemblies.  That is called a Synodal Church"

The irony is Cardinal Steiner is presently trying to find ways of getting around the decisions taken following the Synod on the Amazon.

We leave the last word to Cardinal Ricard

"I had the impression that I didn't know half of them" at a reception to celebrate Cardinal Aveline becoming a Cardinal.  

Cardinal Aveline wants a Synod of the Mediterranean.  It really is Synods for everything these days.  The carbon footprint of the Church can only grow larger under Synodality.....and I thought modern clerics were all environment to the exclusion of the preaching of the Cross.

The coming Conclave

There are presently 132 Cardinals under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote

Since becoming Pope in March 2013, Francis has appointed 83 new cardinal electors, or 63% of the College of Cardinals and there have been few opportunities to meet.   Despite what Vatican II had to say on collegiality, Pope Francis has not exactly been a collegial Pope.   He has responded to the abuse crisis which cried out to use every necessary means to restore the authority of the Episcopate in matters of faith and morals by calling a Synod on Synodality.  The last thing the Church needs is this exercise in ecclesiastical navel gazing which is being met by indifference in the worldwide Church apart from among the pseudo-clerical lay elite who make up the Synod professionals and who have editorial control over the documents issued.   The effect of Synodality is to dissolve the remaining authority of Bishops.  This has not stopped the Pope instrumentalising the waning power of Bishops to attempt to destroy the celebration of the Latin Mass.   This is the absolute power corrupting absolutely of which the Catholic Lord Acton spoke, which he erroneously applied to Pope Pius IX.  Indeed, it might be said that the inaccurate allegations of corruption in faith and money-matters levelled by Protestants of previous generations have become true in our own.  When Faith is dissolved in modernity, the Catholic Church just becomes a matter of power and show.

The Pope has not exactly been respectful of the dignity of the Cardinals either.  The Consistory was actually a meeting for the Pope to inform Cardinals about their loss of power in matters ecclesiastical and to abrogate power to himself.

Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez, who worked closely with Archbishop Romero, reached eighty on Saturday so he will not be a Cardinal elector.  Based on seniority, it should have been Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas who received the Cardinal’s hat.  But alas Alas was far too conservative for this least conservative of Popes.  One can only fear that the rot has gone too far in the Cardinal’s college and that the outcome of the next Conclave is a foregone conclusion and another modernist will inherit the Papal throne, sitting on which is indeed an embarrassment for all.  Francis has produced an unbalanced Church as he is such a man of party and faction.  The cardinals are known as the hinge of the Church. Francis thinks a door can only work with one hinge and it is modernist.  He is hammering away at the other hinge. He has broken the ecclesiastical compromise necessary to make the Church work post-Vatican II.

And finally from Germany

Bishop Ackermann has rejected idea of resigning following calls for him to do so for the way that he handled the sex abuse scandal in his Diocese.  He will, however, be stepping down from as Head of the German Bishops’ Conference Abuse Commission at the end of September.

Cardinal Marx may be living on borrowed time as he was also Bishop of Trier and a report will be produced covering his time there in coming years.

See German Diocese transferred convicted priests to hospital chaplaincies