Consistory

The consistory is a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, except when convened to elect a new pope (in which case the meeting is called a conclave, and special rules of membership, procedure, and secrecy apply). Consistories are held in Vatican City for taking care of the business of the college, which usually involves advising the Pope on important matters concerning the church.

Consistories can be ordinary or extraordinary. Only ordinary consistories can be public.

Since the Pope creates new cardinals in the presence of the college, the consistory is where this takes place (the last consistory for the creation of new cardinals took place on November 24, 2012). The identities of the cardinals-to-be are generally announced some time in advance, but only at the time of the consistory does the elevation to the cardinalate take effect, since that is when the Pope formally publishes the decree of elevation. Some men have died before the consistory date, and if a Pope dies before the consistory all the nominations are voided. The cardinal, however, does not have to attend the consistory for his elevation to be effective. For example, then-Bishop John Fisher was imprisoned by King Henry VIII on April 26, 1534. A year later, Pope Paul III created Fisher a cardinal-priest in May 1535. King Henry, however, forbade the cardinal's hat to be brought into England, declaring that he would send the head to Rome instead. Cardinal Fisher was beheaded a month later, on June 22.

Those new cardinals present are presented with their rings, zucchetti (small skullcaps), and birette (four-cornered silk hats) by the Pope. Formerly they also received an elaborate broad-brimmed tasseled hat, the galerum rubrum, at the ceremony, but Pope Paul VI abolished this in 1967 and those cardinals who want these obtain them privately from a maker in Rome.

The zucchetto, the biretta, and the galerum rubrum are all scarlet, the distinctive color of cardinals' vestments. When a diocesan cardinal dies, his galerum rubrum is suspended from the ceiling of his cathedral.

At the consistory cardinals are generally assigned titular churches in the diocese of Rome, though Pope Paul VI abolished their functional involvement in the governance of these churches; the cardinals formally "take possession" of these churches at a later date.