CARDINAL PROTECTOR. - He is the cardinal who, at the request of a religious society, is designated by the Roman Pontiff as helper, counselor and moral assistant of that same society.
I. HISTORY
Although the institution of the cardinal protector may have a connection with the Roman protectores and with the defensores or protectores of ecclesiastical history in the 8th-10th centuries (Moroni, LV, col. 317), its origin, in the specific current sense, is due to St. Francis who, between 1220 and 1221, asked for and obtained from Pope Honorius III the cardinal Ugolino as "pastor" of the entire Franciscan movement. The Saint imposed in the Rule the requirement to ask for a cardinal who would be gubernator, protector et corrector of the brotherhood he had founded.
The institution also spread to other mendicant and monastic religious orders; indeed, in the latter almost every monastery came to have its own cardinal protector. The purpose was principally that of having a patron in disputes and in dealings with the Pope, and also a wise counselor in governance. Unfortunately, however, abuses were not slow to appear, both on the part of the protectors, who wanted to interfere too much in the actual governance of the protected societies, and on the part of the subjects of these, who entrenched themselves behind the name and authority of the protector in order to refuse obedience to their own superiors. Gregory XI, with the bull Cunctos Christifideles of 25 May 1373 (Bullarium Romanum, IV, Turin 1859, p. 562), put an end to such abuses and better defined the proper attributions of the cardinal protector, which nevertheless remained very considerable: to preside over the Chapters, to elect the procurator and the apostolic syndic, to divide the provinces, to interpret the law, to confirm the acts of the Chapter, etc.
It was only the bull of Innocent XII Christifidelium of 16 February 1694 (Bullarium Romanum, p. 594) that brought sure legislation to the subject. The Innocentian bull addresses all cardinal protectors and not only that of the Friars Minor; it absolutely removes from the protector any authority to interfere in the causes of individual members of the protected society, and finally deprives him of all direct jurisdiction, leaving him only a moral authority. Innocent's provisions were subsequently confirmed by Clement XI, with a letter of 9 May 1715, and the Innocentian bull may be called the immediate source of the current discipline of can. 499. In the historical development of congregations with simple vows, the institution of the cardinal protector has no importance for male congregations, whereas for female ones there is a return almost to the ancient practice of an absolute interference. The fact finds its reasons in the opposition of the Roman Curia to the centralization of female congregations with houses in many dioceses, dependent on a superior general from another diocese. Given, however, that in reality such institutions had, in the 18th and 19th centuries, multiplied and spread in all parts of the world, it was deemed necessary to entrust the institution to a supreme and irreproachable director, the cardinal protector. And from this point of view, the latter was of great advantage to the development of female congregations, because he was an endorsement of the universal and centralized regime of the new institutions. When the feared inconveniences did not occur, and the need for a central regime proved ever more necessary, the functions of the cardinal protector were again reduced to the limits of the bull of Innocent XII. The change was not brought about by a single explicit act, but by the corrections that the S. Congr. of Bishops and Regulars made to the Constitutions, before granting approval.
II. CURRENT DISCIPLINE
Can. 499 § 2 summarizes the entire present legislation by establishing that the cardinal protector, unless there is an express and different provision in the constitutions, has no jurisdiction, nor must he have any interference in the internal discipline or administration of the religious order or of individuals, but promotes its good by his counsel and patronage. To fulfill this task, the CIC and the practice of the Roman Curia grant the cardinal protector the right to have free epistolary relations with individual religious, without superiors being able to read the letters sent by the protector or sent to him; the forwarding and execution of certain rescripts, etc. Sometimes the opinion of the cardinal protector is sought on a particular question; at other times it is granted that he may preside over the election of the Superior General in place of the Ordinary of the place, to whom such a right would belong according to can. 506 § 6. Extraordinarily and by delegation he may have greater powers, such as those of visitation, correction, etc.
Ordinarily the appointment is made by the Secretariat of State of His Holiness, either in the form of a simple note or by apostolic letters in the form of a Brief. Requests to obtain a cardinal protector may be addressed to the S. Congr. of Religious, which ex officio forwards them to the Secretariat of State; the latter, having obtained the prior consent of the cardinal, presents the name to the Supreme Pontiff, who decrees the appointment.
As a general rule, a cardinal protector is granted only to religions of pontifical right. Some societies have the Pope himself as their natural protector.