Dear Catholic Exchange:
Does the pope have to be an ordained priest?
In the writings of and about St. Gregory I can only find that he was ordained a deacon, one of the seven of Rome. I also believe one can find several others that were not ordained a priest.
Although it is extremely doubtful we will ever see it done in our lifetimes, I am of the opinion that a bishop or cardinal does not have to be an ordained priest. But both would require the appointment and blessing of the Holy Father. Where can I find a true answer regarding this question?
Mr. Ferstl
Dear Mr. Ferstl:
Peace in Christ!
As best as we can determine it is not technically a requirement to be an ordained priest to be eligible to be elected to the papacy. However it is a long standing custom to choose the pope from among the College of Cardinals. Under the Code of Canon Law number 351, a man is required to be an ordained priest (or bishop) to be eligible to appointment to the College of Cardinals. Therefore assuming the unwritten rule that popes are to be chosen from among the College of Cardinals, there is a practical necessity that a man have at least attained to the priesthood to be elected pope.
It is also a requirement that the pope function as the Bishop of Rome as this intrinsic to the nature of the office. So he will be consecrated bishop immediately if he is not already a bishop according to the Code of Canon Law number 350. Therefore it could be inferred that he must meet at least the Divine Law requirements for episcopal ordination i.e., a baptized Catholic male who is not a heretic or schismatic. But regardless of his status at the time of his election he must be consecrated Bishop of Rome.
Though it seems Gregory was only a deacon at the time of his election, he was ordained a priest and then a bishop after his election to the papacy.
According to canon 378, all bishops must serve at least five years as ordained priests to be eligible for episcopal ordination, and according to canon 351, only men who have at least received priestly ordination are eligible to be appointed to the College of Cardinals and those appointed are required to receive ordination as bishop when they become cardinals. As a practical matter, though, the pope is not effectively limited in who he appoints to the College of Cardinals. There are the norms which we have mentioned above, but the pope can dispense from these or change them altogether. For instance, when he was recently made a cardinal, Father Avery Dulles was dispensed from the obligation of being ordained a bishop because of his age. So there is at least one cardinal who is not a bishop and there have been others such as Jean Danielou and Hans Urs Von Balthasar in the not-so-distant past. As for appointing a new bishop, it would be highly irregular, but the Holy Father could certainly appoint a baptized lay person to fill a vacant see provided he were a Catholic man and in communion with the Church. If this unlikely event occurred, the man would have to go through three ordinations in short order — first to the diaconate, then to the priesthood, and finally to the episcopate. We are unaware of anything like this happening recently, but Church history is full of oddities.
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