Ban On Cardinals Over Eighty Voting
Its most dramatic reform was to give formal structure to Paul's already announced decision to prohibit cardinals over the age of eighty from participating and voting in the election of popes. The reasoning behind this is that Conclaves have a tendency to be strenuous and stressful; up until 1996, the Cardinals were locked into the Apostolic Palace, forced to live in temporary makeshift rooms, sharing a few common restrooms. At times, some Cardinals were too ill to even go to the Sistine Chapel. Paul VI's decision was to dispense the most elderly Cardinals from their Cardinantial obligations.
John Paul II kept this regulation in Universi Dominici Gregis.
Read more about this topic: Romano Pontifici Eligendo
Famous quotes containing the words ban and/or voting:
“It is cruel for you to leave your daughter, so full of hope and resolve, to suffer the humiliations of disfranchisement she already feels so keenly, and which she will find more and more galling as she grows into the stronger and grander woman she is sure to be. If it were your son who for any cause was denied his right to have his opinion counted, you would compass sea and land to lift the ban from him.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)