Talk:Prince of the Church

Untitled
according to our article on the Knights of Malta, the pope is not the grand master of the order. I'll remove the reference, again. Gentgeen —Preceding undated comment added 16:12, 29 November 2005

I like how the third paragraph is just one, long, run-on sentence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.2.50.14 (talk) 04:10, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

This unsourced article is mostly nonsense
This totally unsourced article is mostly nonsense: a fanciful, unfocussed, at times unreadable personal essay.

Among other things, prince-bishops or prince-abbots were not "princes of the Church", unless they had been elevated to the status of cardinal by the pope. They then were princes of the Church, not because they were prince-bishops but because they were cardinals. Since the majority of prince-bishops were never made cardinals, they never were princes of the Church.

Definitions of "Prince of the Church":

Oxford Dictionaries: ''A dignitary in the Church, especially a wealthy or influential cardinal or bishop. ''

'''CatholicCulture.org: ''A cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, so called because he is considered the ecclesiastical equal to the prince of a reigning civil society. '' --Lubiesque (talk) 21:26, 5 November 2014 (UTC)

Rejected by Pope Francis
Although the term remains in use, it has been rejected by Pope Francis, specifically as applied to cardinals. I'll edited accordingly. JQ (talk) 04:41, 12 January 2023 (UTC)