General congregations: Profile of future Pope emerging from sessions
(Vatican Radio) The fourth general congregation got underway Wednesday morning at
09:30 with 153 Cardinals present. Four more cardinals arrived in Rome overnight,
three of them cardinal electors, cardinal Lehman from Germany, the Egyptian cardinal
Naguib, and from Hong Kong cardinal Tong Hon. This brings the number of cardinal
electors present in Rome to 113, with two cardinals still to arrive, cardinal Nycz
from Warsaw (due to arrive Wednesday afternoon) and Vietnamese cardinal Pham (due
to arrive Thursday). Emer McCarthy reports Listen:
In the daily
press briefing Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, who attends the Congregation
sessions, revealed that birthday greetings were also exchanged for cardinals Kasper
on his 80th birthday Tuesday and Coccopalmiero who is 75 Wednesday .
On Wednesday
there were 18 interventions from different cardinals representing the Church in different
parts of the world, for a total of 51 thus far. Due to the large number of people
wishing to speak a time frame of 5 minutes was established for each intervention.
The order of interventions, noted Fr. Lombardi, is not selected according
to geographical origins or precedence. The main themes discussed were: the Church
in the world, needs of New Evangelization, the Holy See, the different dicasteries
of the Roman Curia; relations with local churches and bishops, what’s beginning to
emerge, the Vatican spokesman noted "is the profile for the future Pope".
Fr.
Lombardi noted the variety of the interventions, from organizational questions pertaining
to the Holy See to local issues of pastoral action. He also added that the cardinals
have decided to meet both morning and afternoon, holding two congregation sessions
and with a smile, he reiterated that no date has yet been set for Conclave.
Journalists
were also shown a screening of the area of the Apostolic Palace where Conclave takes
place. Images where projected from the Pauline Chapel where the procession of cardinals
into Conclave begins from through the ‘Sala Reggia’, which is crossed by the processing
cardinals and then of the Sistine Chapel which is undergoing a radical overhaul in
preparation for the voting. This includes the building of an artificial platform
over the ancient pavement to protect the antique marble and mosaic.
Images
of Vatican staff sewing the materials and textiles that will be used to drape various
tables and walls were also shown. Finally, images of the two stoves used to burn ballots
and send up smoke signals for papal election as they were removed from storage crates.
One of the stoves was made specifically to burn chemicals to create black or white
smoke indicating the outcome of the election, the other for the burning of the ballots.
In
conclusion, responding to a question regarding the cancellation of a daily press briefing
by US cardinals, Fr. Lombardi stated: “The cardinals journey toward conclave is not
a convention or synod. It is a journey, that is above all a time of reflection for
the College of Cardinals. The College has decided to maintain reserve over proceedings.
But we are try to give as much information as possible”.