Wednesday, February 11, 2015

What the Consultors spoke about

Just before lunch today, the Director of the Holy See Press Centre, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ held a briefing on the subject of the eighth meeting of the nine Cardinal Consultors with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, which ended this afternoon and which had begun on Monday morning at the Casa Santa Marta.


Briefing presented by Father Federico Lombardi, SJ
concerning the eighth meeting of the Council of Cardinals
February 9-11, 2015

The eighth session of the Council of Cardinals was held from February 9 to 11, with meetings held in the mornings and in the afternoons.

All the members of the Council were present as was the Pope who participated at all the meetings except for that of Wednesday morning - as he had done on other occasions - because of the General Audience.

The first meeting, held on Monday morning, was dedicated to the preparation of the Report on the work accomplished by the Council on the theme of the reform of the Curia, which will be presented on Thursday (February 12) during the Consistory of the College of Cardinals.  The Secretary of the Council, His Excellency, Marcello Semeraro illustrated the contribution which he had prepared.

The meeting on Monday afternoon was dedicated to a meeting with His Eminence, Cardinal Ravasi concerning the Pontifical Council for Culture in the context of the reform of the Curia.

The majority of the meeting on Tuesday morning was instead dedicated to a meeting with Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication and of the Commission for Vatican Media who presented the Interim Report of that Commission, including the main results and proposals for the reorganization of the Vatican Media complex.  The Council expressed its appreciation for the work accomplished by the Commission and affirmed the main objectives presented.

During the afternoon session, certain considerations and questions were once again entertained concerning the Secretariat and the Council for the Economy in view of the finalization of the Statutes of these new organizations.

The first part of the meeting on Wednesday morning was once again dedicated to preparations for the Consistory which will take place in the coming days, in particular the contribution which will be offered by the Coordinator of the Council, Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, while in the second part of this morning's meeting, there was an update on the organization and the activities of the Secretariat for the Economy.

During the final meeting this afternoon, consideration will once again be given to the subject matter considered during the morning gathering together with the Holy Father and together they will listen to some information from Cardinal O'Malley concerning the recent meeting of the new Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The next session of the Council of Cardinals is scheduled to take place from April 13 to 15 of this year.

No comments: