ASSISTANT TO STUDY. - He is a clerical employee of the Sacred Congregations and offices of the Holy See and represents the highest grade of the minor officials, below the undersecretaries or substitutes.
It is his task to study and report, either directly to his superiors (secretary or undersecretary) or in the Congress, on matters pertaining to his subject or to the geographical zone assigned to him. He drafts the minutes for the various provisions of current affairs, to be reviewed, before they are copied and sent, by the secretary (or assessor) or by the cardinal prefect (or secretary), by whom they will then be signed. He draws up the office sheet to be printed for the ponenze dealt with in the Plenary of the cardinals and carries out the decisions taken. He takes part in the weekly Congresses presided over by the cardinal and expounds the matters within his competence: he drafts the rescripts of grace, determining their clauses, the fee due, etc.
It is naturally impossible to determine more specifically the activity of the study assistants, since it varies greatly with the variation of the individual congregations and offices: these are, however, duties of considerable importance, since within the sphere of his own functions, by subject or, often, by geographical division (which, for example, prevails at the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory, the Propaganda, the Oriental Congregation, the Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs and that of the Seminaries) the study assistant acquires a specific competence that cannot easily be replaced by others.
Vittorio Bartoccetti