Pope: There won't be women cardinals

[rug]

by Joshua J. McElwee | Dec. 14, 2013

Pope Francis has denied rumors that he intends to name women as cardinals in the Catholic church, telling a prominent Italian newspaper he was unsure where the idea, which has circulated in recent weeks, had come from.

“I don’t know where any such an idea came from," the pope told the Italian daily La Stampa in an interview published online Saturday. "Women in the Church must be valued not 'clericalised.'”

Cardinals, sometimes known as the "princes of the church" and for their wearing of red vestments, are the only people who vote to elect the pope. Following a pope's death or resignation of the papal office, they meet in a secret conclave to cast ballots until a new pope -- usually from among their ranks -- is chosen.

Cardinals are usually senior Catholic prelates who serve either as archbishops in the world's largest dioceses or in the Vatican's central bureaucracy.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/pope-there-wont-be-women-cardinals

[IrishAyes]

1. And to that I would say,

Not yet, true; but it ain't over till the fat lady sings, and I'm keeping my trap shut for the moment.