Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Council of Cardinals, Day 3

At the conclusion of this morning's meetings, the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Father Frederico Lombardi, SJ held a briefing to inform journalists about the developments which have taken place during the meetings which took place yesterday afternoon and this morning.


The Cardinals celebrated this morning's Mass with the Holy Father as they also had done yesterday.

Similar to the process they had followed on Monday and also on Tuesday, the Cardinals received reports from the Commission responsible for the IOR yesterday morning, and then continued their work in the afternoon in order to be able to present to the Holy Father their proposal regarding the organization and the guidance of the economic and administrative activities of the Holy See, and also concerning the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).  These proposals are now in the hands of the Holy Father.

During Tuesday afternoon's meeting dates were established for the next two gatherings of the Council of Cardinals: the first will take place from April 28 to 30, after the Canonization of Blessed John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII; and the second from July 1-4.

During this morning's meeting (which the Holy Father did not attend due to the General Audience), the members of the Council continued their work and dedicated a bit of time to organizing the continuation of their work in the most efficient manner, keeping in mind the various other meetings that they will have to attend.

This afternoon's meeting began at 4:00pm in the Sala Bologna within the Apostolic Palace.  At this meeting various members of the Council of Cardinals for the study of organizational and economic matters facing the Holy See (the Council of 15) as well as the Heads of the Vatican Dicasteries responsible for economic matters and the members of the Council of Cardinals (the Council of 8) were present.  During this afternoon's meeting, some representatives from the relevant Commissions (those studying the economic matters facing the Holy See and those overseeing the IOR) will present brief reports on the work that they have accomplished.  In this way, the Council of 15 will be informed about hte work that has been accomplished by the Commissions and about the proposals advanced by the Council of 8.

Father Lombardi then gave a few details about the Extraordinary Consistory which will begin on Thursday morning (with the expected participation of 185 Cardinals) and about the courtesy visits which will be arranged on Saturday afternoon with the newly-created Cardinals.

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