Yesterday–the day before the red hat giveaway–Pope B16 held a pre-consistory meeting with the college of cardinals. This was a day of prayer, reflection, and discussion about topics of interest to the Church at large.
So of course they held it behind closed doors.
That didn’t stop word from getting out about what they talked about, partly through a press release and partly through cardinals who spilled a few beans.
EXCERPTS:
There was no formal agenda, but in an opening talk the pope mentioned three specific concerns for discussion, according to a Vatican press statement:
— "The condition of retired bishops."
— "The question raised by (Archbishop Marcel) Lefebvre and the liturgical reform desired by the Second Vatican Council."
— "Questions connected with the dialogue between the church and Islam."
The pope invited the cardinals to raise other issues of their own and said the exchange should take place in a spirit of unity and communion.
Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa, told CNS that he did not think the pope was looking for a "yes or no" response from the cardinals on the Lefebvrites.
One bishop suggested raising the retirement age from the current limit of 75 years.
It was the pope’s idea to convene the meeting, and Vatican sources said it signaled a strong advisory role for the world’s cardinals under the new pontificate.
There was also tech support for the less tech savvy cardinals:
It fell to Archbishop Monterisi to explain a few practical details: where to tune into simultaneous translations in four languages — English, French, Italian and Spanish, how to request the microphone and how to turn up the headphone volume on the consoles.\
So how much of a nerd does it make me if my first thought, after reading your headline, was “I didn’t know that Jimmy was into Linux!”