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Renouncing the rights of the cardinalate is especially rare.

In the one-sentence announcement, the Holy See said only that Francis had accepted Becciu’s resignation as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints “and his rights connected to the cardinalate.”

In 1917, the Holy See changed canon law, restricting the cardinalate to the ordained.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation from the cardinalate and has ordered his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry.”

About the middle of the century, the merits of the Inquisitor Nicholas Roselli earned him the cardinalate.