IN A lavish ceremony this morning in the Basilica of St Peter's, Pope Benedict will formally create 24 new cardinals.
In bringing the number of elector cardinals (those under 80) to 121, Pope Benedict is beginning to leave his stamp on the church since it is estimated that by the next consistory in 2012, he will have appointed two thirds of the elector cardinals.
Opening the consistory yesterday, the pope touched on familiar ground when he said that today's church was faced with the great challenge of "relativism", something which risks becoming a total dictatorship, adding: "We live in a time when it becomes a difficult undertaking to announce the truth of the gospel and of the great achievements of Christian culture".
However, yesterday's opening day of prayer and reflection was also dominated by discussion of more controversial issues as the cardinals exchanged views on clerical sex abuse, religious freedom and relations with the Anglican communion.
All three matters have a particular urgency given that the church's sex abuse crisis is far from over, that recent tensions between the Vatican and China over the appointment of a bishop to the state backed "patriotic association" and given that last week five Anglican bishops announced they would be converting to Catholicism.
Some cardinals emerging from yesterday morning's closed doors session expressed concerns that the new tensions with Beijing would lead to a worsening of relations.
Meanwhile the secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told fellow cardinals that religious freedom for Christians was under threat not only in Islamic countries but also from the "process of secularisation" that dominates much of the traditionally Christian West.
The fact that American cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith, was last night addressing the consistory on the matter of the church's response to the sex abuse crisis prompted the US survivors group, SNAP, to stage a protest in Rome yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference, sex abuse victim Joelle Casteix argued that the Catholic Church is still "complicit in the cover-up of sex abuse crimes".
"If the pope and cardinals were serious about stopping childhood sexual abuse, they would be meeting with law-enforcement authorities in every single country where there is a Catholic parish, instead of meeting and talking to each other," he added.
Englishwoman Lucy Duckworth, who was abused by Catholic and Anglican priests from the age of five to 11, said: "I've had letters from bishops and priests telling me that their thoughts and prayers were with me but I don't need thoughts and prayers, I need justice."
Talking to reporters, however, English cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor disagreed, arguing that the church is "doing everything it can" to put the "terrible shame" of the sex abuse crisis behind it.