Lay cardinal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the Roman Catholic Church, a lay cardinal is a cardinal who is not an ordained clergyman, a status that was abolished in the early 20th century with the requirement that cardinals be ordained clergy. The last lay cardinal was Teodolfo Cardinal Mertel, a lawyer created a cardinal by Pope Pius IX in 1858. Giacomo Antonelli, who served as Pius IX's Cardinal Secretary of State, was also a lay cardinal.
[edit] Confusion concerning the title of "cardinal"
It is perhaps commonplace to think that the title of "cardinal" is the next order after "bishop" to which a man may be ordained, just as "bishop" comes after "priest" and "priest" after "deacon". In fact, however, the position of cardinal is not an order to which one can be ordained, but simply a high office in the Church. In recent decades, with rare exceptions, only men who have been ordained bishops have been created cardinals, and the only exceptions have been priests.
