The main topics addressed in the last session of the Council of Cardinals were synodality, the Holy See’s Diplomatic Service, and women’s role in the Church. The members of the Council, created in 2013 to aid the Holy Father in the reform of the Roman Curia, met in Casa Santa Marta from February 21-23, 2022.

Taking part in the meeting were Cardinals Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Reinhard Marx, Sean Patrick O’Malley, Oswald Gracias, and Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, as well as the Council’s Secretary, Monsignor Marco Mellino, reported in a press release the Holy See Press Office.

Synodality, Diplomacy, and Women in the Church

 The note points out that, after a conversation in which the different Cardinals talked about the socio-political and ecclesial situation of their regions of origin, they reflected on the subject of synodality as a process of listening and discernment at the heart of the Church’s identity and the necessary conversion it requires of the clergy and the laity.”

Reflected upon among the topics addressed were “aspects related to the Holy See’s Diplomatic Service and the role and activity of Nuncios in the current political and ecclesial framework.”

During the session, the Cardinals also listened to and commented on “a Report of theologian Sister Linda Pocher, on the role of women and the ‘Marian principle’ in the Church,” reads the text. The meeting ended at 5:30 pm and the next gathering is planned for April of this year.

The last meeting of the Council was held on December 13 and 15 of last year, and it focused on the topic of the pandemic and the development of the Synod’s works.

  Translation by Virginia M. Forrester