Cardinals are appointed by the Bishop of Rome and they are, technically, Roman clergy. They obtain titular churches in the diocese of Rome, or titular dioceses in the suburbs of Rome. The case of Cardinal Patriarchs is a little different, but you can see their close association with the Roman Pontiff by their arms, which bears the tiara. It was, in antiquity, the job of the Roman clergy to elect a Bishop of Rome. That’s what they do today. NB: Not all the clergy of Rome vote, but only the designated “hinge-men” who are electors (“cardinal” comes from the Latin word for “hinge”, cardo).

If Francis was at the very least only the Bishop of Rome all these years, he could create cardinals. The College of Cardinals (divided into three orders of bishop, priest and deacon) don’t have to be consecrated as bishops. They usually are now, but not necessarily. This distinguishes the College of Cardinals from the College of Bishops, which seems more strictly related to the Successor of Peter as Vic

Excerpt: "I think it very important to spell out exactly what our duties toward the Holy Father are, and exactly what his universal jurisdiction entails, and under exactly what conditions his teaching on faith and morals is infallible. Certainly, there is a danger of an exaggerated maximalism..."

Here is canon 1251:

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        Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.


  

From the General Norms for Liturgical Year and Calendar, 24

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        24. The first eight days of Easter Time constitute the Octave of Easter and are celebrated as Solemnities of the Lord.


  

The days of the Octave of Easter are celebrated as Solemnities (in the Novus Ordo calendar). Therefore, there is no obligation for Catholics for the Friday abstinence on this coming Friday.

Peter Kwasniewski: "Today the German Bishops' Conference released pastoral guidelines on imparting quasi-liturgical blessings to gay couples. It's as if they were just waiting for the right moment, when there's no one in Rome who can react to it."

Excerpt: "The Winding Cloth is traditionally given to the living mothers of priests, to be cherished and kept in a special linen envelope bag. When the mother of the priest dies, the Cloth is placed in her casket. A little traditional humorous story accompanies the practice: This way Heaven and Saint Peter know that the soul is that of a mother of a priest."

Additionally, Cardinal Dolan suggests the next pope should be a blend of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, & Francis.

Catholic civil rights group, the Catholic League, has written to a letter to the House Ethics Committee saying that Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene should be censured after making a controversial post on X believed to be tied to the death of Pope Francis.