So, why are all those guys called Cardinals? Is it because they dress up in bright red thing-a-me-bobs so they look like the well-known male birds? No, it’s all about history. Here’s a very short version.
If we go way back in time to the early Roman Church right after Peter was martyred, for ecclesiastical and organizational purposes the city was divided into seven regions, each of which was administered by a deacon. Their job was to assist the Bishop of Rome in various liturgical functions. It wasn’t long that the term cardinal-deacons was applied to those seven deacons as well as to twenty-eight principal priests who formed the immediate papal entourage in church functions. They became his trusted advisors and ecclesiastical assistants and were thus “incardinated” to the pope.
That strange word, incardinate, indicates a situation where a member of the clergy is placed under the jurisdiction of his ecclesiastical superior, in this case, the pope. The word cardinal is derived from the Latin root, cardo (meaning pivot, socket, or hinge), as their episcopal lives pivoted around or were hinged to the pope. But that’s not anywhere near the end of the story.
By the late Middle Ages, the title cardinal was also bestowed by the pope on the principal priests of Europe’s key churches (today we would call them parishes) outside of Rome in places like Paris, London, Madrid, Trier, Milan, etc. Note that they typically were not the bishops of those dioceses. They were known as cardinal-priests and functioned as the pope’s posse of elders, so to speak.
Over time and as the popes became more involved in the religious and material world around Rome, the volume of activities increased greatly in that part of Rome we now call the Vatican. As a result, the popes needed more spiritual troops to represent them at episcopal functions and to counsel them. So, they looked around and picked seven bishops in the immediate vicinity to be cardinal-bishops. Those cardinal bishops are titular bishops of one of the seven main dioceses around Rome. Historical Note: It was seven and then became six and now it’s back to seven though only six cardinal-bishops ever exist at any one time — don’t ask, it’s complicated. They all are highly placed administrators in the Roman Curia, or the Catholic Church’s administrative organization (or central government) residing in the Vatican that assists the pope in governing the faithful. The term, Curia, incidentally, is derived from the Latin word for tribe.
From the early Church in Rome cardinals were the popes’ key assistants in religious and administrative functions. But their role as electors of a new pope after the Chair of Peter had been vacated evolved over time and became fixed by a decree issued by Pope Alexander III at the third Lateran Council (1179).
Cardinals used to sport a broad-brimmed scarlet hat known as a galero, which was sometimes adorned with dancing tassels. Sadly, that quaint custom has bitten the dust and today only the scarlet biretta (a strange looking four cornered hat with three “horns” topped by a fuzz ball) and zucchetto (beanie) are worn by cardinals.
Interestingly for non-Catholics, other than electing the pope, cardinals possess no automatic or special powers of governance unless so appointed by the pope. In terms of rank, a bishop and a cardinal have the same powers.
Here’s another freebie for non-Catholics unrelated to cardinals. The term "Holy See" comes from the Latin word for seat, sedes, which refers to the pope’s throne or chair (cathedra in Latin). So, the term refers to the episcopal function of the Roman Catholic Church but is not the same entity as the Vatican. When international diplomats are granted credentials representing their country to the Roman Catholic Church, those documents are not issued to the Vatican City State (which has only been in existence since 1929) but to the Holy See, which has been in existence since Peter was the first pope.
A quiz on this material is scheduled for next week.
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