Cardinal’s College Activity in Support of the Pope

Traditionally, the consistory is the institutional venue where the collegiate function is exercised by the cardinals cooperating with the Pope. The Canon Law Code foresees two kinds of it: an ordinary one, to which all the cardinals are summoned (or at least those present in Rome) to deal with serious matters (which are often quite frequent) or to perform acts of great solemnity, such as, for example, the creation of new cardinals; and an extraordinary one involving indiscriminitely all cardinals and taking place when the Church has special needs or serious questions have to be discussed. Though the specifically consultative function of an ordinary consistory has by now in effect disappeared, the cardinals (and let’s not forget that they are an extremely ancient institution of human rights dating back to the first centuries AD) continue nowadays to cooperate with the Pontiff in governing the Universal Church, individually running the various offices of the Curia Romana, and as a group dealing with any particularly important problems. Recent Popes have confirmed this tradition with regular recourse to the cardinals’ consultative faculty even going beyond traditional juridical schemes.