FIRST CONGREGATIONS OF CARDINALS THIS COMING MONDAY

Vatican City, 1 March 2013 (VIS) - Today, the first day of the Sede Vacante, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, has begun to summon the cardinals to the first of the General Congregations, as provided for by the Apostolic Constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis”.

This first General Congregation will take place on Monday, 4 March, at 9:30am in the Synod of Bishops Hall. A second General Congregation is also scheduled for 5:00pm in the same place.

Following is the text of the letter:

“As prescribed in the Apostolic Constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis” of 22 February 1996 at No. 19, analogous to the case of the death of the Supreme Pontiff, I have the duty to officially communicate to Your Eminence the news of the vacancy of the Apostolic See from the renunciation presented by Pope Benedict XVI effective from yesterday evening, 28 February, at 8:00pm in Rome.”

“On communicating this to you I fulfil my duty of summoning Your Eminence to the first of the General Congregations of the College of Cardinals, to be held on Monday, 4 March, at 9:30am in the Synod of Bishops Room in the Paul VI Hall.”

“The General Congregations will then continue normally until the complete number of Cardinal electors is gathered and the College of Cardinals decides the date for those Cardinal electors to enter into Conclave on the basis of what the recent Motu Proprio of 22 February established regarding modifications in the norms relating to the election of the Roman Pontiff.”

“On my part, I am pleased to take this opportunity to send you my fraternal greetings.”

BENEDICT XVI IS WELL: READING, LISTENING TO MUSIC, AND PRAYING

Vatican City, 1 March 2013 (VIS) – The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., related some information regarding the Sede Vacante and the first hours of Benedict XVI after having left the pontificate in a press conference this afternoon.

Fr. Lombardi spoke this morning with Benedict XVI's personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the Papal Household, who told him that, yesterday, His Holiness, who was very calm and serene, had watched several news programs and expressed his appreciation for the work of the journalists as well as for the participation of those who had assisted in his departure from the Vatican and his arrival at Castel Gandolfo. After a brief walk through the Apostolic Palace he went to bed and slept very well.

Today, as always, His Holiness celebrated Mass at 7:00am and then prayed the Liturgy of the Hours. In the afternoon he has another walk planned at 4:00pm, through the gardens of the Castel Gandolfo Apostolic Palace, to pray the rosary. Benedict XVI brought with him various books on theology, history, and spirituality. At the moment he is reading from a book by the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Yesterday at 8:00, Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, substitute of the Secretariat of State sent a letter to all the diplomatic representatives to the Holy See informing them that, during the period of the Sede Vacante, all matters will be dealt with by the substitute and by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Moreover, this morning, the papal apartments in St. John Lateran were sealed.

MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS

Vatican City, 1 March 2013 (VIS) – The College of Cardinals is currently comprised of 207 cardinals: 117 Cardinal electors who can vote in the election of the Pope and 90 cardinals who are over the age of 80. First in the order of the hierarchy are Cardinal-bishops. Currently six in number, these were originally the bishops of the "suburbicarian" dioceses of Rome. Still today the Cardinal-bishops are assigned one of these seven suburbicarian Sees, even though they are not bishops of the diocese. Alongside the titular Cardinal-bishops of those Sees in the hierarchy of the Church (with the exception of Ostia's titular who, since 1150, has been the dean of the College of Cardinals), Pope Paul VI added, in his motu proprio of 1965, “Ad Purpuratorum Patrum”, the patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The patriarchs are not assigned any further title because the names of each of their patriarchal Sees are already included in their title as cardinal.

Second and most numerous in the three orders of cardinals are the Cardinal-priests who are assigned the “titulos” (title) of the important churches of the Diocese of Rome.

Last in the order of cardinals are the Cardinal-deacons who were originally the seven deacons in the Papal Household and the seven deacons who supervised the Church's works in the districts of Rome during the early Middle Ages, when church administration was effectively the government of Rome and provided for all of the city's social services. Cardinal-deacons today are given title to one of these deaconries.

Following is the complete list of the College of Cardinals according to their respective order of precedence. Cardinal electors are marked with an asterisk.

Cardinal-Bishops

SODANO Angelo

ETCHEGARAY Roger

*RE Giovanni Battista

ARINZE Francis

*BERTONE Tarcisio

SARAIVA MARTINS José

Cardinal-Bishop Patriarchs

SFEIR Nasrallah Pierre

DELLY Emmanuel III

*NAGUIB Antonios

*RAÏ Béchara Boutros

Cardinal-Priests

ARNS Paulo Evaristo

BAUM William Wakefield

CÉ Marco

MACHARSKI Franciszek

KITBUNCHU Michael Michai

do NASCIMENTO Alexandre

*DANNEELS Godfried

WILLIAMS Thomas Stafford

*MEISNER Joachim

LOURDUSAMY D. Simon

OBANDO BRAVO Miguel

VIDAL Ricardo J.

GULBINOWICZ Henryk Roman

TOMKO Jozef

POUPARD Paul

WETTER Friedrich

PIOVANELLI Silvano

SIMONIS Adrianus Johannes

LAW Bernard Francis

BIFFI Giacomo

MARTÍNEZ SOMALO Eduardo

SILVESTRINI Achille

FALCÃO José Freire

SANTOS Alexandre José Maria dos

CANESTRI Giovanni

PIMENTA Simon Ignatius

CLANCY Edward Bede

SZOKA Edmund Casimir

PASKAI László

TUMI Christian Wiyghan

CASSIDY Edward Idris

*LÓPEZ RODRÍGUEZ Nicolas de Jesús

ANGELINI Fiorenzo

*MAHONY Roger Michael

RUINI Camillo

KOREC Ján Chryzostom

SCHWERY Henri

VLK Miloslav

FURNO Carlo

*DARMAATMADJA Julius Riyadi

*ORTEGA Y ALAMINO Jaime Lucas

AGUSTONI Gilberto

WAMALA Emmanuel

KEELER William Henry

*TURCOTTE Jean-Claude

CARLES GORDÓ Ricardo María

MAIDA Adam Joseph

*PULJIĆ Vinko

*SANDOVAL ÍÑIGUEZ Juan

TONINI Ersilio

MEDINA ESTÉVEZ Jorge Arturo

CASTRILLÓN HOYOS Darío

ANTONETTI Lorenzo

STAFFORD James Francis

DE GIORGI Salvatore

ARAÚJO Serafim FERNANDES de

*ROUCO VARELA Antonio María

*TETTAMANZI Dionigi

*PENGO Polycarp

*SCHÖNBORN Christoph

*RIVERA CARRERA Norberto

*GEORGE Francis Eugene

JAWORSKI Marian

PUJATS Jānis

CACCIAVILLAN Agostino

SEBASTIANI Sergio

*GROCHOLEWSKI Zenon

*SEPE Crescenzio

MEJÍA Jorge María

*KASPER Walter

*DIAS Ivan

*AGNELO Geraldo Majella

RUBIANO SÁENZ Pedro

MCCARRICK Theodore Edgar

CONNELL Desmond

*BAČKIS Audrys Juozas

*ERRÁZURRIZ OSSA Francisco Javier

*TERRAZAS SANDOVAL Julio

*NAPIER Wilfrid Fox

*RODRÍGUEZ MARADIAGA Óscar Andrés

AGRÉ Bernard

*CIPRIANI Thorne Juan Luis

ÁLVAREZ MARTÍNEZ Francisco

*HUMMES Cláudio

*BERGOGLIO Jorge Mario

*POLICARPO José da Cruz

*POLETTO Severino

MURPHY-O'CONNOR Cormac

EGAN Edward Michael

HUSAR Lubomyr

*LEHMANN Karl

TUCCI Roberto

*SCOLA Angelo

*OKOGIE Anthony Olubunmi

PANAFIEU Bernard

*ZUBEIR Wako Gabriel

*AMIGO VALLEJO Carlos

*RIGALI Justin Francis

*O'BRIEN Keith Michael Patrick

SCHEID Eusébio Oscar

*ANTONELLI Ennio

*TURKSON Peter Kodwo Appiah

*TOPPO Telesphore Placidus

*PELL George

*BOZANIĆ Josip

*PHAM MINH MÂN Jean-Baptiste

*BARBARIN Philippe

*ERDŐ Péter

*OUELLET Marc

*VALLINI Agostino

*UROSA SAVINO Jorge Liberato

ROSALES Gaudencio B.

*RICARD Jean-Pierre

*CAÑIZARES LLOVERA Antonio

CHEONG Jinsuk Nicholas

*O'MALLEY Sean Patrick

*DZIWISZ Stanisław

*CAFFARRA Carlo

ZEN ZE-KIUN Joseph

*BRADY Seán Baptist

*MARTÍNEZ SISTACH Lluís

*VINGT-TROIS André

*BAGNASCO Angelo

*SARR Théodore-Adrien

*GRACIAS Oswald

*ROBLES ORTEGA Francisco

*DiNARDO Daniel N.

*SCHERER Odilo Pedro

*NJUE John

KARLIC Estanislao Esteban

MAZOMBWE Medardo Joseph

*VELA CHIRIBOGA Raúl Eduardo

*MONSENGWO PASINYA Laurent

*ROMEO Paolo

*WUERL Donald William

*ASSIS Raymundo DAMASCENO

*NYCZ Kazimierz

*PATABENDIGE DON Albert Malcolm Ranjith

*MARX Reinhard

ESTEPA LLAURENS José Manuel

*ALENCHERRY George

*COLLINS Thomas Christopher

*DUKA Dominik

*EIJK Willem Jacobus

*BETORI Giuseppe

*DOLAN Timothy Michael

*WOELKI Rainer Maria

*TONG HON John

MUREŞAN Lucian

*THOTTUNKAL Baselios Cleemis

*ONAIYEKAN John Olorunfemi

*SALAZAR GÓMEZ Rubén

*TAGLE Luis Antonio

Cardinal-Deacons

*TAURAN Jean-Louis

MARTINO Renato Raffaele

MARCHISANO Francesco

HERRANZ Julián

LOZANO BARRAGÁN Javier

*NICORA Attilio

COTTIER Georges Marie Martin

NAGY Stanisław

*LEVADA William Joseph

*RODÉ Franc

CORDERO LANZA di Montezemolo Andrea

VANHOYE Albert

*SANDRI Leonardo

*LAJOLO Giovanni

*CORDES Paul Josef

*COMASTRI Angelo

*RYŁKO Stanisław

*FARINA Raffaele

COPPA Giovanni

*AMATO Angelo

*SARAH Robert

*MONTERISI Francesco

*BURKE Raymond Leo

*KOCH Kurt

*SARDI Paolo

*PIACENZA Mauro

*DE PAOLIS Velasio

*RAVASI Gianfranco

SGRECCIA Elio

BRANDMÜLLER Walter

BARTOLUCCI Domenico

*FILONI Fernando

*MONTEIRO de CASTRO Manuel

*ABRIL y CASTELLÓ Santos

*VEGLIÒ Antonio Maria

*BERTELLO Giuseppe

*COCCOPALMERIO Francesco

*AVIZ João BRAZ de

*O'BRIEN Edwin Frederick

*CALCAGNO Domenico

*VERSALDI Giuseppe

GRECH Prosper

BECKER Karl

*HARVEY James Michael

STAMPS AND COINS OF THE SEDE VACANTE

Vatican City, 1 March 2013 (VIS) - The Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Governorate of Vatican City State has issued four stamps with the image of an angel raising the pavilion (“umbraculum”) of the Apostolic Camera, the work of Italian artist Daniela Longo. The stamps cost: €0.70 for mail to Italy, with a light green background; €0.85 for mail to Europe, with a blue background; €2.00 for mail to the Americas, with a grey background; and €2.50 for mail to Oceania, on a yellow background.

The use of these stamps as postage is only available during the Sede Vacante, ending with the election of the new Pope. Their philatelic use is allowed afterwards and the office will continue to sell them to collectors. The initial printing is for 230,000 complete series. The folder including all four stamps costs €15.00. There is also a smaller folder that was created on Pope Benedict XVI's renunciation of the pontificate, which includes two stamps and costs €10.00.

Regarding coins, a €2.00 one commemorating the Sede Vacante will be issued. It is the only one that will be circulated seeing that, according to the European convention with the Vatican City State, only one coin is allowed to be issued per year, with an extra one permitted in the case of a Sede Vacante. There will, therefore, be two coins in 2013: one for the Sede Vacante and the other, to be issued in April, with an image of Benedict XVI.

The Sede Vacante coin, 125,000 of which will be minted, bears the emblem of the Cardinal camerlengo with the pavilion of the Apostolic Camera.

There will also be 10,000 silver €5.00 coins minted for the Sede Vacante that will have a dove of the Holy Spirit and the words “Veni Sancte Spiritus” on one side and the emblem of the Cardinal camerlengo with the pavilion of the Apostolic Camera and the phrase “Sede Vacante 2013” on the other. Likewise, 5,000 gold €10.00 coins will be minted. This will be a very small coin (13.85mm in size and 3g in weight) and will have the same images and writing as the silver coin.

The €5.00 and €10.00 coins are collectibles and, theoretically, can only be used within the Vatican. They are not legal tender outside of the Vatican.

NOTICE

Vatican City, 1 March 2013 (VIS) – Tomorrow, Saturday 2 March, there will be no VIS transmission, as is normal for Saturdays, unless there is a relevant event or notice to report.