# What, no Cardinals from Antarctica? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 18, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921 "2005-04-18T17:56:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/1 "2005-04-18T17:56:51Z")
The Department of Dumb-Sounding Adjectivial Clauses has issued a citation for [CNN.com](http://CNN.com) for the following line: > [@](#): > > Roman Catholic cardinals from six continents have locked themselves inside the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel to begin a historic conclave to select a successor to Pope John Paul II. I just felt a need to share. And yes, I know that once upon a time not all inhabited continents had cardinals, much less ones who could vote in papal elections. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/2 "2005-04-18T18:15:56Z")
I believe Antarctica is reserved for the likes of De Rosa and Yallop. Any oil reserves would of course be of no interest to those devoted to spiritual matters. ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/3 "2005-04-18T18:34:29Z")
You mean noone’s ministering to those poor pagan penguin babies? :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/4 "2005-04-18T18:53:45Z")
There’s a reason for that. “Does the pope shit in the icy crevasse?” just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/5 "2005-04-18T18:58:39Z")
No cardinals, but it looks like they’ve got plnty of nuns to meet their spiritual needs. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/6 "2005-04-18T23:48:27Z")
If life were fair, that’s where Cardinal Law should have had his next “parish”. ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-cardinals-from-antarctica/299921/7 "2005-04-19T04:05:47Z")
There’s no reason there can’t be a Bishop of Antarctica, and that he can’t be raised to a cardinal. The Papacy kept appointing bishops to [Greenland](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06777b.htm) long after contact was lost and the colony died out. I think the last one was in the 1500s, about a century after any of them actually went to Greenland. A stunt like this would raise eyebrows today, but there’s nothing that says it can’t happen.