With the Council of Cardinals

On 5 and 6 December, a session of the Council of Cardinals took place in the Vatican. Pope Francis took part in both meetings.

Attending the meeting were Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Giuseppe Bertello, Óscar A. Rodríguez Maradiaga, s.d.b., Reinhard Marx, Seán Patrick O’Malley, o.f.m. cap., Oswald Gracias and Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, o.f.m. cap., and the secretary of the Council, Bishop Marco Mellino.

The meeting was an opportunity for a reciprocal update on some current affairs in the various geographical areas of reference and an overall assessment of the Council’s progress in recent years. The Cardinals, together with the Pope, were able to reflect on the continental phase of the Synod currently underway, on the basis of a report from Cardinal Mario Grech and the outcomes of the digital synodal process carried out in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication. At the end, Cardinal O’Malley introduced the recent efforts of the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the service of the episcopal conferences and the Roman Curia and, in the afternoon, Cardinal Gracias reported on the conference of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences held in Bangkok last October.