PONENTE (ponens). — A term particularly applied to prelates entrusted with reporting on causes or matters handled before the tribunals or Congregations of the Roman Curia, and now also generally to judges serving as rapporteurs in ecclesiastical trials.
The origin of the term, in its first sense, is linked by older authors to the functions exercised by prelates in the Congregations or dicasteries overseeing the temporal affairs of territories subject to the sovereignty of the Holy See, whose various provinces or districts were called *ponenze*. "Since these prelates were assigned the provinces of the Papal State, and each was called a *ponente* because he reported or proposed the business and causes of his *ponenza*," (Moroni). In its current usage, common in the judicial system of the Church, *ponente* is the reporting magistrate who is part of the judging panel. The general rule established is that in every collegial tribunal the president designates one of the judges as *ponente* or rapporteur, tasked with reporting on the case to the other members and drafting the written judgment. The *ponente* is responsible for presenting his conclusions first during the deliberations in camera for the decision of the case; naturally, various duties related to the instruction of the case are also connected to his role. The president of the panel himself may assume the functions of *ponente*, but only if permitted by the tribunal in matrimonial cases; he may also, for just cause, replace a *ponente* already appointed.
Special powers and faculties are granted to *ponenti* in cases before the Tribunal of the Sacred Roman Rota, both because they preside over the turn assigned to the case and because they are given broad powers for the swift and complete resolution of cases, including the authority to supply evidence and exceptions if it concerns the public good or the salvation of souls.
In beatification and canonization causes before the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the *ponente* must be one of the cardinals belonging to the Congregation itself, appointed by the Pope. His duty is to study the assigned cause with particular care and to report to the Congregation all that favors or opposes the cause.