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THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CARDINAL BISHOP, CARDINAL PRIEST, AND CARDINAL DEACON
What is a Cardinal Bishop? What is a Presbyterian Cardinal? What is a Cardinal Deacon?Cardinals are men to whom the Pope grants this distinction. As a rule, it is bishops who are made cardinals, but this is not mandatory; a presbytery can be made cardinal. In the past, some secular people were given cardinal dignity. Now, if a presbyter is promoted to the cardinalate, they should receive the Episcopal consecration.The Pope does not "order" cardinals, for it is not a degree of order. What the Pope does by promoting them is "create" them cardinals. This makes it inside a meeting of the cardinal school called consistory. The Cardinal College gives advice to the Pope, but its most important function is the election of the Pope. Cardinals have the right to vote in the Pope's choice until they turn 80. Cardinals younger than that age are called electors. When they pass age, they remain cardinals; likewise, they can be created cardinals after that age. Centuries ago, the election of the Bishop of Rome was conducted centuries ago by the Roman clergy together with the bishops of the suburbicary dioceseses of Rome, that is, the dioceses that make up the Province of Rome. Over time, this function passed on to the Cardinal College, composed of clergy from all over the world. But, as a reminder of the previous way, it was decided to symbolically assign a parish, a deaconry, or a suburbicarial headquarters to each of the cardinals, in order to incorporate them allegorically into the Roman clergy and, in this way, make it emblematically remain the Roman clergy that chooses to his bishop.Attending to this, there are three types of cardinals: Cardinals Bishops, Presbyterian Cardinals, and Deacon Cardinals. Cardinals deacons are usually those who work in the Roman Curia, that is, those who help the Pope in governing the Universal Church and do not have a diocese in charge. At the time of being created cardinals, they are assigned a diaconate of Rome. After ten years as deacon cardinals they can be promoted to Cardinals Presbyterian. The cardinal deacon with the oldest is called the protodeacon, and it is up to whom it is appropriate to announce to the world the name of the newly elected pope.Presbyterian Cardinals are usually the bishops of the dioceseses of the world. Each of them is assigned the title of a parish of Rome. Cardinals bishops are those to whom the Supreme Pontiff assigns as a suburbic diocese as well as the eastern patriarchs who are created cardinals. Generally the assignment of a suburbic diocese is not made at the time of its creation, but when one is vacant. It is at that moment that the Holy Father chooses between the cardinals presbyterians and deacons who should occupy it, thereby elevating him to cardinal bishop. It should be mentioned that the eastern patriarchs who form part of the cardinal school are cardinal bishops from the time of their creation and who have their patriarchal headquarters as their title, not one of the suburbic dioceseses.Cardinal bishops choose from among them who will be the dean of the entire cardinal school. The Pope needs to approve this appointment. It is up to the dean of the Cardinalic College who is responsible to ask who got the qualified vote in a conclave if he accepts the appointment and, in case he is not a bishop, to consecrate a bishop to the elected who accepted the vote. In case the dean is impededed, the cardinal bishop with older age replaces.The suburbicary dioceseses of Rome are seven: Ostia, Albano, Frascati, Palestrina, Porto-Santa Rufin, Sabina-Poggio Mirteto and Velletri-Segni. The diocese of Ostia is reserved for the Cardinal Dean who, in his turn, retains the title of the suburbicarian diocese he already occupied. Thus, currently the Cardinal Re has the title of the diocese of Ostia and the diocese of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto. In this way, there should be a minimum of six cardinal bishops, but there can be more, considering that the Eastern Patriarchs have this degree and do not "occupy" a suburbic diocese. Although the number of cardinals bishops is limited by the number of suburban dioceseses, on June 26, 2018 Pope Francis took the decision to copt (add) to the Order of Bishops of the College of Cardinal Fathers to four cardinals (three of the Order of the Presbyters and one of the Order of Deacons) without assigning them the title of a suburbian diocese, but retaining the title of the church or the diaconate of Rome that they had.This decision responds to the number of cardinals who form the Order of Bishops had remained constant and unchanged over time. Since almost 10 years ago, no cardinal had been added. And that imposes a problem: in the event of an eventual conclave, none of the cardinal bishops with the title of suburb headquarters would participate, so one might doubt who would ask the candidate with the most votes if he accepted his election and the name he chose, or who would consecrate the chosen in case he wasn't a bishop, especially if the only cardinal bishop who would participate (the Patriarch of Antioch) was elected.*FROM "LITURGIA PAPAL"*
