Eighth session of the Council of Cardinals

Vatican City, 11 February 2015 (VIS) – The Eighth Session of the Council of Cardinals took place from 9 to 11 February, with meetings both in the morning and the afternoon.

All members of the Council were present, and the Pope participated in all the meetings apart from on Wednesday morning, as usual, due to the General Audience.

The first meeting on Monday morning was dedicated to the preparation of the Report on the work carried out by the Council and on the theme of reform of the Curia, which will be presented on Thursday 12 at the Consistory of the College of Cardinals. The Secretary of the Council, Bishop Semeraro, gave a presentation.

The Monday afternoon meeting was dedicated to a meeting with Cardinal Ravasi regarding the Pontifical Council for Culture within the framework of reform of the Curia.

The Tuesday morning meeting was instead dedicated mostly to a presentation by Msgr. Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Commission for Vatican Media, of the Commission’s Interim Report, with the main results and proposals for the reorganisation of Vatican media. The Council expressed its appreciation for the work carried out by the Commission and confirmed its principle orientations.

In the afternoon, questions regarding the Secretariat and Council for the Economy were again taken into consideration, in view of the finalisation of the Statutes of these new entities.

The first part of the meeting on Wednesday morning was again devoted to the preparation of the following day’s Consistory, especially the contribution to be offered by the Coordinator of the Council, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, while during the second part an update was offered on the organisation and activities of the Secretariat for the Economy.

In the final meeting, on Wednesday morning, the topics covered in the morning will be examined again with the Holy Father, and it is expected that a report will be given by Cardinal O’Malley on the recent plenary session of the new Commission for the Protection of Minors.