Cardinals and the Concistory: Past and Present

Vatican Insider
February 16, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/concistoro-12724/


Both electors and non electors have the important role of advising the Pope; a role which Wojtyla and Ratzinger have strengthened in recent years. Indeed, Benedict XVI has continued John Paul II’s decision for the Concistory to be preceded by a consultation with cardinals for the exchange of opinions on issues that have been brought to the Church’s attention.

Cardinals have had the power to elect Popes since 1059. In 1150 the College of Cardinals was formed, with a dean and a Camerlengo (whose responsibilities formerly included the fiscal administration of the Patrimony of St. Peter), and from the 12th Century onwards, prelates outside Rome also began to be appointed as cardinals. Still today, each cardinal receives the title or diaconate of a Roman diocese or a suburbicarian diocese, from the Pope. This is a symbolic of the Roman clergy’s long tradition with the Pope being the Bishop of Rome.

The subdivision of the College of Cardinals, whose purpose is now merely honorary, is also linked to its origins: bishops, presbyters and deacons. The number of cardinals, which for centuries had not ordinarily exceed about thirty, was fixed at 70 by Pope Sixtus V, in 1586. This limit, which had already been infringed by John XXIII, was raised to 120 by Paul VI in 1973. The years prior to this, Montini had established that once cardinals reached the age of 80, they no longer had the power to elect the Pope. It is still possible to elect cardinals who are over 80 (or any baptised male for that matter) as Pope.