POPE FRANCIS TO MEET WITH CARDINALS

Pope Francis will meet with all the Cardinals of the world, along with those to be created on February 14, in Rome on Thursday and Friday, February 12 and 13.

We have been informed that the agenda will focus on the ongoing restructuring of the Vatican Curia, the various offices which assist the Pope in his governance of the Universal Church.

This will be fascinating, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that Pope Francis is leading all of us disciples of Jesus into a fuller and deeper relationship with Jesus as a first step.  Any renewal of the broader Church must begin with our own personal renewal in and through Jesus.  Then, Pope Francis is pointing us to a simpler organizational and administrative structure, preferring the simpler model of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles.  This model places greater autonomy at the local levels of the Church, as lived out historically in  the Eastern Catholic Churches and in the Orthodox Churches.

Over the centuries, the local level model gave way to a more centralized governing in the Vatican.  It is apparent that Pope Francis is now helping to re-shape the Church and using more fully those ancient structures which have been so pastorally fruitful:  Councils, Metropolitan Provinces, Synods, and Patriarchs. Note the Pope's decision to have the Pallium for new Archbishops bestowed in their Metropolitan Sees, not in Rome; and involving all of the Suffragan Dioceses in that process.

I have great hopes for the direction which Pope Francis is guiding us, and the Holy Spirit will surely be present and active the week of February 9 to 15.

Please pray for Pope Francis and all of the Cardinals attending these important sessions.