Pope Wants to Keep Meeting With Cardinals

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI announced that he will continue to meet with all the world’s cardinals, as he did last week, to address key questions in the life of the Church.
The Pope expressed his satisfaction with that kind of meeting, when he met with the 15 new cardinals accompanied by relatives, friends and pilgrims, in Paul VI Hall today.

The Holy Father had met with the world’s cardinals the day before Friday’s consistory.

In his address today, delivered in several languages, he announced that “the meetings of the whole College of Cardinals with the Successor of Peter, as occurred last Thursday, will continue to be privileged occasions to try together to better serve the Church, entrusted by Christ to our solicitude.”

These meetings reproduce the environment that the cardinals, both electors as well as non-electors, lived in the general congregations that preceded the conclave of April 2005.

Last week, Benedict XVI asked the cardinals for their judgment on questions such as dialogue with Islam, reconciliation with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s followers, and the mission of retired bishops.

In his greetings, in English, the Holy Father today addressed “the family members and friends of our newly created cardinals, together with the lay faithful, who have accompanied them to Rome for the solemn celebrations of last Friday and Saturday.”

“I trust that your time here in the Eternal City will deepen your love of the Church and strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord!” the Pope exhorted. “I encourage you to continue to pray for our Cardinals and to support them with your love and affection. May God bless you all!”

Speaking in Polish, the Holy Father thanked Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz “for all the years spent with John Paul II and for all that this service implies for the universal Church. I pray that your future ministry will be equally fruitful.”