Vatican City - Pope Francis is meeting with 200 cardinals, out of the College's 226, on Monday and Tuesday (29-30 August) to reflect on the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, the document reflecting the Pope's reform of the Roman Curia.
The event marks the Pope's largest and most attended meeting with the College of Cardinals. In almost ten years of his pontificate, such a meeting has not been held, and such wide attendance was seen only eight years ago when the Pope called the synod on the family (2014-15), inviting some 180 Bishops and Cardinals.
Having travelled to Rome from their countries over recent days to welcome the 20 new confreres created Cardinals in the 27 August Consistory, the Cardinals, together with Eastern Patriarchs and Superiors of the Secretariat of State, will participate in the meetings held at the new Synod New Hall during three morning and afternoon working sessions, with a break for lunch.
The two days of meeting will culminate on Tuesday, 30 August, at 5:30 p.m. with a papal Mass in St. Peter's Basilica with the new Cardinals, which Pope Francis was unable to celebrate on Sunday due to his pastoral visit to L'Aquila.
Participants say they received an agenda in recent weeks listing themes and questions on various aspects related to the Document. They are discussing them in language groups, and then will have moments of general discussion at the plenary sessions in the Hall.
Pope Francis gave news on 29th may, that he would convene the College of Cardinals for two days to explain the contents and changes of the Apostolic Constitution, promulgated on 19 March.
The document went into effect on 5 June, the Solemnity of Pentecost. The text features and formalizes many of the reforms already implemented by the Pope in recent years, studied and formulated by the Council of Cardinals that the Pope instituted at the start of his pontificate.
Missionary dimension and a bridge between the Curia and Dioceses
One of the main characteristics of the Apostolic Constitution is its missionary dimension, a key to the reform and global direction for the Church of our times.
The Constitution also introduces various changes, beginning with the merging and renaming of several Dicasteries. Above all, however, Praedicate Evangelium - as the name itself suggests - gives a more missionary structure to the Curia, so that it is increasingly at the service of the local Churches and evangelization efforts.
"With the Constitution, there is now a space for listening and dialogue between the various churches and the Curia," newly appointed Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, Archbishop of Manaus (located in Brazil's Amazon), explained to Vatican News, when interviewed at the Holy See Press Office on Saturday just before the Consistory started.
A universal vision has always distinguished Pope Francis' choices for a College of Cardinals as seen with the representation of countries that never in their history had a Cardinal: from Tonga to Brunei, from Mongolia to Haiti, from Bangladesh to Laos to Lesotho.
The College is now composed of members who are very diverse both in terms of cultural background, pastoral sensitivity, and geographical locations that make it difficult for them to attend meetings in Rome on a regular basis or simply participate.
-VN