#12386 How Does the Pope Choose Cardinals? Bishops, Cardinals, and Authority - Joe Heschmeyer
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
“How Does the Pope Choose Cardinals?” This episode explores the complexities of papal authority, including how the pope selects bishops and cardinals, and whether it’s reasonable to question his role amid current Church confusion. We also delve into the pope’s influence on Vatican appointments and the implications of Canon 285 for clergy in public office.
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Questions Covered:
- 04:35 – How does the pope choose who will be elevated to a bishop or cardinal?
- 15:12 – Can we disagree with the pope’s statements?
- 18:42 – Why hasn’t any pope successfully consecrated Russia?
- 21:26 – Isn’t it reasonable to ask whether the pope is the real pope with so much confusion within the Church right now?
- 37:45 – Canon 285 permits clergy to hold public office. Can the pope hypothetically serve in public in the U.S?
- 46:54 – How much input does the pope have on appointing people in the Vatican? Especially people who have a scandal background?
- 51:33 – What is the pope’s recourse with a disobedient cardinal?
Transcript
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| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Welcome back to Catholic Answers live. |
| 0:31.9 | We're talking about the papacy, and it is hopping. |
| 0:35.5 | This is the hottest topic in America right now. |
| 0:37.8 | Every line full and as soon as one opens up, it gets filled up. |
| 0:41.8 | We can defend the claim. |
| 0:43.6 | It's the hottest topic in America. |
| 0:45.2 | But I like your optimism. |
| 0:47.4 | Look, if you're going to make me defend my claims, this show is going nowhere. |
| 0:51.0 | We're coming to a screeching halt. |
| 0:53.4 | If you're going to make me start defending what I say, |
| 0:55.5 | Joe. So I would rethink that strategy if I were you. Airplane. 8.8-3-1-8-7-884, call and ask whatever |
| 1:03.5 | you would like about the papacy. By the way, non-Catholics, very, very welcome. Non-Christians, |
| 1:08.5 | very, very welcome. If you want to ask about the oldest continuously |
| 1:12.8 | functioning office on the earth, you would think anybody on the earth might take an interest in that. |
| 1:19.5 | If I say the words, the oldest continuously functioning office on earth, you think, well, I might |
| 1:24.4 | have a question or two about that. So anybody's welcome. Joe, you will |
| 1:30.3 | take questions from Hindu people? I will. Buddhists? Yes. Shintois? No. No? Oh, no. I thought, I was sure |
| 1:40.3 | we were going to go down the whole list. Yes, but no, you decide, okay, unless you are a practitioner. This is going to be everyone but shentuist hour. If you're shentuist, I will take your calls any other time. Yeah, right. But just really for the sake of expediency, the lines are all full. If the shintuists all start coming in. You gotists in here. You got to find some limiting mechanism. |
| 2:01.4 | If you're an Aztec, yeah, sure. |
| 2:03.5 | Shintois? |
... |
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