Vatican
City, 13 February 2013
(VIS) – Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press
Office, presented the Holy Father's activities up to 28 February.
Tomorrow,
as announced in Tuesday's briefing, Benedict XVI will meet with the
Roman pastors in the Paul VI Hall. On the 15th he will receive,
respectively, the "Pro Petri Sede" association and the
president of Romania. On the 16th he will meet with the president of
Guatemala. On those same days he will meet with the Italian bishops
from Liguria and Lombardy on their 'ad limina' visits. However, the
audience with the president of Cameroon, which was scheduled for 28
February, has been cancelled as well as the 'ad limina' visits
scheduled with the Italian prelates from the Le Marche region between
25 and 28 February. On Saturday the 16th at 6:00pm, the Pope will
meet with the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, and the following
Saturday, the 23rd in the late morning, with the Italian President,
Giorgio Napolitano. "Both," Fr. Lombardi clarified, "have
expressed the desire to meet briefly with the Pope."
From
the 17th, after the Angelus, until the morning of the 23th, the Holy
Father and the Roman Curia have the Lenten Spiritual Exercises, which
will be led this year by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. As is
traditional, for the Wednesday of that week there will be no general
audience and no activity with the Pope is planned. On the 24th, he
will pray the Angelus with the faithful who are gathered in St.
Peter's Square.
On
the 25th, the Holy Father will receive some of the cardinals in a
private audience. On the 27th, the general audience will take place
in St. Peter's Square. On the 28th, the last day of his pontificate,
Benedict XVI will meet with members of the College of Cardinals in
the Clementine Hall and at 5:00pm he will travel by helicopter to
Castel Gandolfo.
The
period of Sede vacante begins on 1 March. All the visits and
activities that call for the Pope's presence during that time are
therefore cancelled.
Finally,
the director of the Holy See Press Office recalled that when the
period of Sede vacante begins, the congregations of cardinals to
prepare for the conclave also begin. The congregations have a number
of juridical requirements to meet along with serving to exchange
viewpoints regarding the problems to be addressed, the situation of
the Church, etc., so that each of the members of the College of
Cardinals might develop his criteria regarding the election of the
new Pope. For this reason, the regulations provide that the beginning
of the conclave be established between 15 and 20 days from the
beginning of the Sede vacante. "If everything goes normally, it
could be envisioned," Fr. Lombardi said, "that the conclave
begins between 15 and 19 March. At the moment, we cannot give an
exact date because it falls to the cardinals to determine it."
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