Paloma Garcia Ovejero, Vice- director of the Holy See Press Office, has reiterated that Pope Francis and the Council of Cardinals are continuing to discuss curial reform.
During a briefing held this afternoon in the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican spokeswoman informed journalists about the 18th Session of the “Council of Cardinals,” often called the “C9,” which began Monday and ends this afternoon in the Vatican.
The Vice-director noted that the members and the Pope participated in all, but two of its meetings, those of Monday morning since he received Costa Rica’s bishops on the occasion of their ad limina visit and this morning due to his weekly General Audience.
The majority of consultations were again devoted to further considerations on the various dicasteries of the Curia, the subject of previous meetings, in view of the new apostolic constitution. Special attention was paid to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide); the Congregation for Oriental Churches; and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
The C9 also started examining the “Diakonia of Justice,” and thus considerable time was dedicated to the Tribunals: the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.
The cardinals also studied the process for the selection of candidates to the episcopate.
As usual, updates were given by prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal Pell, on its latest developments, and the prefect of the Secretariat for Communication, Msgr. Dario Viganò will report on the progress of reforms of the Holy See system of communication.
In addition to discussing the unification of Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Centre in the dicastery entrusted to him, Msgr. Vigano noted that meetings have been initiated with the Secretariat of State, the Secretariat for the Economy, APSA, and the Labor Office to accompany this new phase of the reform.
Also, the plan for restructuring Vatican Radio frequencies, and the new policies for the world of social networks were presented. Finally, there was a reflection on the project for the beginning of the reform of the Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The Council of Cardinals consists of the following nine prelates: Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State; Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago, Chile; Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay; Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich; Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo; Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston; Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy; Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State.
The next session of the Council of Cardinals is scheduled for April 24-26.
