Fr Lombardi, SJ: briefing to journalists on IX General Congregation

(Vatican Radio) The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, briefed journalists on Saturday, after the morning session of the IX General Congregation. During the course of the question and answer session, one journalist asked whether there is a projected duration of the Conclave. Fr. Lombardi explained that the general spirit among the participants in the General Congregations, and their readiness to enter into Conclave, tend to suggest that the Conclave itself will not last more than a few days, at most. “It is not my place to tell the Cardinals what to do,” he said, adding, “a lengthy duration of the Conclave would evidently be a sign of an impasse," i.e. that consensus had not been reached. “It is not up to me,” repeated Fr. Lombardi, SJ, “but I have no reason [to foresee such a situation].” Listen to our report:

Among the details that emerged, there was confirmation of the dissolution – the rendering useless – of the Fisherman’s Ring and other official seals of Benedict XVI’s pontificate. Fr. Lombardi, SJ’s English-language consultant, Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, elaborated. “Fr. [Lombardi, SJ] saw with his very own eyes this (Saturday) morning, five objects that were ruined – scratched [and] rendered useless, because the image was destroyed,” he said. Fr. Rosica went on to say, “First of all, there’s the ring – the Fisherman’s Ring that was destroyed – the image was scratched – secondly, there was [also destroyed] a stamp of the Fisherman’s Ring, a seal, which was used to seal official documents.” There were, in addition, “[T]wo stamps that were used for official Papal documents with the image on it, were scratched, so they cannot be used, and finally, the master lead seal, which was used for major documents, and [for] creating other seals: that was scratched, as well.”