Editing Cardinal (Catholic Church) (section)

==Titular churches==
{{Main|Titular church|List of titular churches}}
[[File:Theodor Kardinal Innitzer -001-.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Theodor Innitzer|Cardinal Innitzer]], [[Archbishop of Vienna]] and Cardinal-Priest of [[San Crisogono]], pictured in the early 1930s]]

Each cardinal is assigned a [[titular church]] upon his creation, which is always a church in the [[city of Rome]]. Through the process of opting ({{lang|it|optazione}}), a cardinal can rise through the ranks from cardinal deacon to priest, and from cardinal priest to that of cardinal bishop – in which case he obtains one of the [[Suburbicarian diocese|suburbicarian see]]s located around the city of Rome.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Witte |first=Arnold |date=2019-12-09 |title=Cardinals and Their Titular Churches |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004415447/BP000027.xml |journal=A Companion to the Early Modern Cardinal |language=en |pages=333–350 |doi=10.1163/9789004415447_023 |isbn=9789004415447 |s2cid=213779632 |access-date=26 April 2022 |archive-date=12 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512152159/https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004415447/BP000027.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> The only exception is for patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches.<ref name="Paul VI. 1965">Pope Paul VI., Motuproprio "Ad Purpuratorum Patrum Collegium" (11 February 1965), par. II.</ref>

Nevertheless, cardinals possess no power of governance nor are they to intervene in any way in matters which pertain to the administration of goods, discipline, or the service of their titular churches.<ref>Code of Canon law: 357-1.</ref> They are allowed to celebrate [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] and hear confessions and lead visits and pilgrimages to their titular churches, in coordination with the staff of the church. They often support their churches monetarily, and many cardinals do keep in contact with the pastoral staffs of their titular churches.

The [[Dean of the College of Cardinals]] in addition to such a titular church also receives the [[Bishop of Ostia|titular bishopric of Ostia]], the primary suburbicarian see. Cardinals governing a [[particular church]] retain that church.<ref>Code of Canon law: 350.</ref>