Council of Cardinals at work

The Council of Cardinals met, as was planned, for three days this week: Monday to Wednesday, 2-4 December.  Present for this week's meeting were Cardinals Pietro Parolin; Óscar Rodríguez Maradiago, SDB; Reinhard Marx; Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap.; Giuseppe Bertoello and Oswald Garcias.  His Excellency, Marcello Semeraro, Secretary of the Council of Cardinals was also present with them.

The Holy Father participated in all the working sessions except for this morning's session, during which he was at the General Audience, and a few other moments due to other commitments.

The final meeting of this session took place this afternoon.

The activities of the Council were dedicated to deepening two aspects of the new Apostolic Constitution: the relationships between the Curia and the various Episcopal Conferences and the presence of the lay faithful - men and women - in decision making roles within the offices of the Curia and in other Church organizations; and to study the theological and pastoral bases for these aspects.

Furthermore, the Council received from His Eminence, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ a report about the work of the Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops concerning the Pan-amazonian Region and was able to reflect, also in the light of some further considerations provided by Cardinal O'Malley, on the elaboration of the post-synodal document.

Cardinal Marx illustrated the ways in which the next synodal journey in Germany will unfold and the themes on which the work will focus.

From September until just a few days before the beginning of this session, some suggestions have continued to arrive concerning the text of the new Apostolic Constitution.  A further reading and evaluation of this document will be carried out during the next meeting of the Council of Cardinals, scheduled to take place in February 2020.