Pope Paul VI's revolutionary act forcing retirement upon aged Cardinals

According to the Pope’s November 24 Motu Proprio, beginning next January no eighty -year-old cardinal will be able to participate in the election of the Pontiff. Presently, these persons amount to twenty-five. Among them is saintly Cardinal Ottaviani, who celebrated his eightieth birthday on October 29, 1970. 

Question: What does His Eminence think about this decision of Paul VI? 

Answer: More important than my personal opinion, which could be deemed biased because of my age, I should like to convey the feelings of 
canons, prelates, and even renowned hierarchs who are unaware of the current problems of the Church. Undoubtedly they all are impressd by this unusual and expeditious way of enacting this grave disruption in the high 
ecclesiastical hierarchy. This radical change was implemented without previous consultation with experts and specialists, at least to observe the formalities to a certain extent. 

Question: Why did Your Eminence say "unusual?” Perhaps because no one expected such a big upsetting decision? 

Answer: It is unusual that, through a Motu Proprio, without previous advice, the pages of the constitution Vacante Sede Apostolica and those of the Code of Canonical Law, which regulated the position of the cardinals, both as to the cooperation they owe the Pontiff for the rule of the world Church, and as to their most important ministry as top electors of the Head 
of the Universal Church, are suppressed. This Motu Proprio then, is an act of abolition of a multicentennial tradition. It rejects the practice followed by all ecumenical councils. Regarding the age limit [the Most Eminent Cardinal spoke calmly and composedly, without any sign of uneasiness], should old age be respected, we would be able to sow the seed whose fruits 
you yourselves would harvest. But here respect was laid aside. ... It is precisely the motivation of age which the Motu Proprio invokes to justify 
such a grave regulation. In fact, along the centuries, a principle was always deemed immutable, namely, that old people are a firm safeguard of the Church and its best advisors, for they are rich in experience, wisdom, and 
doctrine. If, in a given case, these gifts were not present, it sufficed to examine the circumstances concerning this particular person to determine 
whether disease or mental disturbance made him inept, this check belonging to skillful experts. In Holy Writ,” [the Most Eminent Cardinal was astonishingly bright], "the value of age and the aged are often mentioned. This shows how constructive are the cooperation and 
guarantee of advanced age in the administration of holy things and in right and efficient pastoral administration. In addition, let us not forget the 
glory of Pontiffs, who, in their old age enlightened the Church with their wisdom and sanctity. Finally, when we cardinals are in our eighties, to our credit is a curriculum vitae full of merits, experience, and doctrines at the 
service of the Church. The Church cannot afford to lose these advantages by accepting only the cooperation of younger and less-experienced people. 

Question : Eminence, could not this discrimination of octogenarian cardinals by chance affect the Pontiff himself someday? 

Answer: Certainly, for the same criterion must be analogically applied to the case of the sovereign Pontiff, be he an octogenarian or be his acts questioned due to age. 

Question : Finally, Eminence: What was your impression about this decision of the Pope? 

Answer: You will see. I felt flattered each time Paul VI, verbally or in writing, called me u il mio maestro ” (“my master”), but now this act of laying me aside completely is openly contradictory with his autographed 
letter of October 29. In that, he congratulated me for my eightieth birthday, using affectionate phrases and flattering felicitations for my long, 
faithful, everyday services to the Church. 

STATEMENTS BY CARDINAL TISSERANT 

According to the November 27, 1970 issue of La Croix , 86-year-old Cardinal Tisserant, who enjoys full mental clarity and excellent physical health, answered questions on Italian Television (First Network). I quote La Croix: 

Rarely had an interview attained such importance and contained such interesting information. In just three minutes, the audience was informed about the Pope’s critical health condition (“he had to be held up on the way out of his Wednesday audience”), about the Cardinal’s excellent state of health, about 
Christ having founded His Church under the form of a monarchic state , and about the collegiality of the bishopric about which we have heard so much (“The more it is mentioned, the less it is exercised”). 

Apropos of Paul Vi’s decision to keep the election of the Pope in the hands of less-than-80-year-old cardinals, Cardinal Tisserant said he did not know the grounds thereof (though the Pontifical document stated them clearly), and that, undoubtedly, the Pope wanted to please young people , since “now, everybody 
wants old people to disappear 

Wednesday afternoon. Professor Alessandrini categorically denied the Cardinal’s words regarding the Pope’s health condition. 

SOME COMMENTS BY FATHER RAYMOND DULAC 

When Fr. Raymond Dulac was asked his opinion of Paul Vi’s decision to take away the right of voting in papal elections from cardinals 80 years and older, he made these statements: 

This decision taking away the right of voting in the papal election from a whole category of cardinals, is an enormous decision. Until now, the most important part of their function was this right. It commands and effects their 
beheading in the most accurate sense of this word; they keep their hats, but their heads are chopped off. This is what the ancient Romans called diminutio capitis, a lessening or amputation of their civil rights and, of course, of their personality. 

Let us not forget that the statute creating the cardinals’ right to elect the Pope dates back to the year 1059; that during the arduous course of this thousand-year period of history this rule was never questioned; that the “impediment” of advanced age has never prevented the creation of a cardinal or the continuing of a Pope once he became 80 years old, that it is contrary to the 
Catholic spirit and the Roman Tradition to suspend a law supported by such a time-honored custom without most grave reasons; and that this type of change, affected by the Pope in 1970 in such a sudden, personal, and suspicious way, will increase most people’s feelings of insecurity, instability, and the alienation which 
has contributed to de-sacralizing the Church and loosening its customs. 

Let us forget the inhuman, vain, vile aspects of this decision concerning the age of men whose sacerdotal ordination had separated them from mortal mankind as far as powers and dignities are concerned. 

After this blow and all the others of the past five years designed to naturalize and laicize the clergy, how could one have the heart to keep on telling the ordained young priests: ”7u es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem 
Melchisedech ?" Priest for all eternity? Of what order? Not of the carnal Levitical tribe, but of the order of that astonishing, unique, ageless personage, Melchisedech, whose mystery is revealed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, verse 3 
of Chapter 7: “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God, continueth a priest forever.” 

This all being over, today’s priest is just like an official who, in due course, is “retired,” with a life pension, like a Swiss guard. 

https://archive.org/details/TheNewMontinianVaticanIIChurchArriagaX.o