VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The cardinals Francis nominated as advisors in April are also looking into some unresolved issues in the Church
ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY
Although their official meeting will be in October, they are already moving full steam ahead with their work and will use the summer months to prepare thoroughly for their first meeting. The eight cardinals Francis chose as his advisors last 13 April, exactly one month after his election, are currently mulling over ideas and proposals. And they will not just be dealing with Curia reform.
When the Vatican Secretariat of State announced Francis’ decision to set up the advisory group, it specified that it was established “to advise him [the Pope] in the government of the universal Church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, ‘Pastor Bonus’.” Advising the Pope on the running of the universal Church is certainly no less important than the council’s task of reforming the Curia, but the latter will be the council’s main focus.
Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga is responsible for coordinating the group of eight cardinals he himself is a member of (Giuseppe Bertello, Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, Oswald Gracias, Reinhard Marx, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Sean Patrick O’Malley, George Pell, Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga). The council’s secretary is the Bishops of Albano (Italy), Marcello Semeraro. A representative of the Middle Eastern Churches could also join the group at some point in the future. They are all cardinals and therefore work closely with the Pope. At the same time, they also work or worked within the bodies that represent Episcopal Conferences: the need to improve the relationship between the central Church in Rome and the local Churches was a subject which came up prior to the Conclave that elected Francis. During the summer, the council is expected to draw up a document defining the nature and identity of the council.
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