The College of Cardinals has issued an appeal for peace from their final general congregation ahead of the conclave, which begins in the Sistine Chapel today. Source: The Tablet.
In a statement published yesterday, they said: “There has been no progress in advancing the peace processes in Ukraine, the Middle East and so many other parts of the world, and that on the contrary, attacks have intensified, especially against the civilian population”.
They made “a heartfelt appeal to all parties involved to reach a permanent ceasefire” and “to negotiate, without preconditions and further delay, the peace long desired by the peoples involved and by the entire world”, echoing Pope Francis’ plea in his Urbi et Orbi message the day before his death.
The statement was read out to the cardinals at the end of their congregation yesterday.
In a separate statement, the Vatican said the meeting had seen “the reaffirmation that many of the reforms promoted by Pope Francis need to be continued: the fight against abuse, economic transparency, reorganisation of the curia, synodality, commitment to peace and care for creation”.
The cardinals developed their discussions about the “profile of the future pope” from meetings the day before, in which they said Francis’s successor “must be present, close, capable of being a bridge and a guide, of favouring access to communion for a disoriented humanity marked by the crisis of the world order”.
Their discussions of the Synod on Synodality described it “as a concrete expression of an ecclesiology of communion, in which everyone is called to participate, listen and discern together”, according to the Vatican.
The statement said that yesterday’s meeting had featured communion as “a central theme” which must be “an essential vocation for the new pontiff”. He must be “capable of embodying the face of a Samaritan Church”, it said.
The congregation also addressed “divisions within the Church and society” and the canonical role of the papacy, including in relation to the role cardinals – noting that meetings of the College of Cardinals should be made “more significant”.
FULL STORY
Cardinals issue peace plea on eve of conclave (By Patrick Hudson, Fredrick Nzwili, The Tablet)
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