MASSACHUSETTS
The Pilot
This week I have been in Rome for meetings leading up to the Consistory for the creation of new cardinals tomorrow, Valentine’s Day. As I mentioned in my last post, from last Friday to Sunday we held our first plenary session of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The commission now consists of 17 members from nations all over the world. They all are very competent, dedicated, and passionate people. It was a very productive meeting and there were a number of different ideas set forth by the group. I am so pleased to have this larger and more diverse group, which I know is going to enrich our work. I was very pleased with the spirit of the different commission members and very grateful for their commitment. On Sunday (2/8), the commission members celebrated Mass together at the Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians within the Vatican. It is the church of the Ethiopian Catholics (the same rite as the Ethiopians and Eritreans who gather every Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston) and is just behind the Pontifical Ethiopian College. The church has been used by the Ethiopians for about the past 500 years, though the history of the building itself goes back nearly 1,500 years.
Various meetings in Rome
Thursday (2/12), along with many of the new cardinals, I was invited for dinner at the British Embassy to the Holy See. There were a number of different bishops there from nations in the British Commonwealth as well as the representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Following our meetings of the commission, we entered into several days of meetings of the group of cardinals advising the Holy Father on reform of the Roman Curia. As always, the Holy Father was with us throughout our meetings, except for Wednesday during the General Audience. We are still working on several recommendations for the reform of the Curia, as well as on a number of other issues that the Holy Father has brought before us.
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