Lay Cardinal - Changes in Canon Law

Changes in Canon Law

The 1917 Code of Canon Law decreed that from then on only those who were priests or bishops could be chosen as cardinals, thus officially closing the historical period in which some cardinals could be clergy that had only received first tonsure and minor orders.

The same rule is repeated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which adds that those who are not already bishops are to receive episcopal ordination. In theory, any priest who has been nominated for the cardinalate may ask for dispensation from the obligation to be ordained to the episcopacy before being created Cardinal, but in practice it is usually Jesuits who ask for and are granted this dispensation. For example, the dispensation was requested by the celebrated theologian, Father Avery Dulles, S.J., upon being named cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001 who granted it. Subsequently invited to a meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2002, Cardinal Dulles at one point asked for recognition to speak to the bishops from the floor. His quip that he was there "under false pretenses" was greeted by much laughter.

The same dispensation was granted to Father Roberto Tucci, another esteemed theologian from the Society of Jesus: he was created cardinal in the consistory of 21 February 2001 by Pope John Paul II, whom Tucci had also successfully petitioned not to be ordained to the episcopacy.

With the motu proprio Ministeria quaedam of 15 August 1972 Pope Paul VI ended the conferral of first tonsure and laid down that entry into the clerical state would instead be by ordination as deacon.