Press Office: note on Economy Council meeting

(Vatican Radio) The Press Office of the Holy See issued a note on the meeting of the Council for the Economy, which took place on Friday, May 2 May 2014. Please find the full text in English, below.

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The Council for the Economy, established by the Holy Father by the Motu proprio "Fidelis
et dispensator prudens" of 24 February, held itsfirst meeting on Friday, 2 May. It took place in
the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace, during the morning and afternoon, and finished at 6
p.m. The sessions were chaired by Cardinal Coordinator of the Council, Reinhard Marx, and in
addition to the fifteen members, were also attended by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin,
Cardinal George Pell, President of the Secretariat for the Economy, and the Prelate Secretary of
the Council, Msgr. Brian Ferme.
The Holy Father received the Council and addressed a brief but important discourse to its
members on Friday morning. The text of his discourse and a summary in Italian of Cardinal
Marx's address to the Pope have already been published (Osservatore Romano, 2-3 May, p.8).
As both the Holy Father and the Cardinal Coordinator were keen to emphasise in their
discourses, the clerical and lay members of the Council are on the same level, with equal rights
and responsibilities. This was made clear during the meeting itself by the fact that clergy and
laypersons were seated in alternate positions at the table, rather than in two separate groups.
The work of the Council, which took place in a positive and constructive context, focused
first on the draft Statutes of the Council itself, anexamination of which will be continued at the
next meeting so that they can be submitted for approval by the Holy Father. The work carried
out by the Commission for the organisation of the economic-administrative structure of the Holy
See (COSEA, instituted by the Holy Father on 18 July 2013) was presented to the Council. The
information and continuity of the work are guaranteed by the fact that the President and two
other members of COSEA are now members of the Council for the Economy.
The next meeting has been scheduled for 5 July. Two more meetings are planned to take
place during the course of this year, one in September and one in December.