About 170 cardinals, including 132 voters, participated in the 11th general congregation, which was held on Monday May 5, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Various subjects have been discussed, in particular the commitment and responsibility to support the new pontiff, whose cardinals hope that it will be part of a perspective of dialogue and construction of relations with the different religious and cultural worlds.
Isabella H. de Carvalho – Cité du Vatican
Some 170 cardinals, including 132 voters, were present at the eleventh general congregation, which was held on Monday afternoon, to reflect on the future pope and the role of the church in the world. The cardinals had decided last week to add a meeting this afternoon, in addition to the usual morning meeting, in order to give voice to all those who wished it before the start of the conclave on May 7, reports the press room director of the Holy See Matteo Bruni. About twenty interventions took place during this session which lasted from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. On Tuesday, there will be only one morning congregation at 9 am.
Reflection themes
The cardinals exchanged on various subjects, in particular on their commitment and their responsibility in supporting the new pontiff. They also sketched the figure of a pope “pasteur», Which is part of a perspective of dialogue and construction of relations with the different religious and cultural worlds. Other themes have been discussed: ethnicism within the Church and society; the phenomenon of migration; Wars in the world, “Themes also linked to the origin of the cardinals that have expressed themselves, notably Asia and Africa»; the challenges of sects in certain geographic areas; and the synod on the synodality and ecclesiology of communion.
Conclave preparation
The press room also indicated that this afternoon, a hundred officials and members of the conclave staff, ecclesiastics and lay people, took the oath of secrecy in the Pauline chapel, located on the first floor of the apostolic palace. From Tuesday, May 6, and until Wednesday morning, before mass “For choosing a pontiffAt 10 am, cardinals voters will be able to start entering the Sainte-Marthe house to settle in the rooms assigned to them.
The office of the presidency of the governorate of the state of the city of the Vatican announced on Monday that from 3 pm on May 7, “All the transmission systems of telecommunications signals for radio mobile phones, present on the territory of the state of the city of Vatican, excluding the Castel Gandolfo zone, will be disabled». This measure aims to guarantee the isolation of cardinals during the conclave. The signal will be restored after the election of the next Pope, pronounced since the central loggia of the Saint-Pierre Basilica.
