Another:
We discussed this issue several months ago in this thread. I remain of the view that there is no theological reason why this could not be done (in the way that there is a theological reason why women can't be admitted to holy orders). There have certainly been cardinals, even in the last century, who did not hold major orders at all, and although I think it's disputed whether there have been any who did not hold minor orders, it's hard to imagine anybody seriously maintaining that minor orders are a dogmatic prerequisite to anything. It must be remembered that the cardinalate is a humanly instituted office created to help fulfill certain administrative tasks within the church; it is not an office with theological significance at all, and it did not really exist for the first thousand years or so of the Church's history. Doctrinally speaking, there is no barrier whatsoever to disbanding the cardinalate tomorrow and devolving the function of electing the Pope upon the clergy of Rome, or the college of bishops. Any such change would be untraditional, but it would not violate Sacred Tradition.
Certainly, appointing woman cardinals would present numerous practical questions and problems, such as what to do about the precedence of cardinals in liturgical functions. And, at least in the current climate, it would have the very bad effect of signaling to people that all things are open for debate and change and that, if women can be admitted to the office of cardinal then it is only intransigence that would not admit them to the "lower" office of priest.
That actually sounds pretty reasonable: possible, but a bad idea. I would go further and say it's a terrible idea, but if it's true that non-priests have historically been made cardinals (which it seems to be, from what I can tell), then it is hard to think of a
doctrinal reason why it would be impossible to extend it to womenfolk. Or am I missing something obvious? Have any of the saints or doctors answered this for us already? I think that post is right that Sacred Tradition can't really be implicated here at all, since the current state of affairs only dates to like 1000 or 1100 AD, and before that the evidence seems to by that the clergy and people of Rome would elect the pope, or occasionally he would be essentially appointed by a local warlord. Anyway,
prudential reasons not to do such a thing, yes, there are a million of those!