153 Cardinals attend 4^th General Congregation

(March 06, 2013) The world’s cardinals gathered in the Vatican during the “Sede Vacante” or Empty See, after Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation on Feb 28, held their fourth General Congregation Wednesday morning, in preparation for the conclave to elect a new Pope.
At a press briefing on day 6 of the Sede Vacante, Vatican spokesman, Jesuit
Fr. Federico Lombardi told reporters 153 cardinals participated during the congregation, four of whom arrived after Tuesday’s congregation took their oath. Three of these new arrivals were electors. That brings the number of cardinals to 113, two short of the 115 electors. The prelates still to arrive are Vietnamese Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man, Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City and Polish Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, Archbishop of Warsaw.
Fr.Lombardi said the General Congregation has not spoken about a date for the conclave as yet. He said 18 interventions were delivered at the meeting, bringing the number of interventions so far in four General Congregations to 51, with issues ranging from the Church in the world today and the needs of the New Evangelization, the Holy See, relations between the Vatican dicasteries and local churches; expectations and profile of the future pope.During Wednesday’s general congregation the cardinals decided to hold two meetings on Thursday, instead of one.
Reporters at the press briefing were also shown a video of the preparations in progress in the Sistine Chapel, the venue of the conclave, as well as the Pauline Chapel from where the cardinals will start in procession to the Sistine Chapel for the conclave.