Pope Francis today opened the long-awaited three-day summit at which
he and his advisory group of eight high-ranking cardinals from around
the world are to discuss the reform of the Roman curia and the
governance of the Catholic Church.Pope Francis has officially named his advisory group of eight high-ranking Churchmen from around the world as the "Council of Cardinals".
As he stated on 13 April when he formed the body as merely a "group of eight cardinals", he wrote that these advisers have the "competence of helping me govern the universal Church and studying a project of revising the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus on the Roman Curia".
The document was made public yesterday and gives the original group of eight a more formal and institutionalised status.
Francis began three days of inaugural meetings with the Council today inside his private library at the Apostolic Palace.
The morning and afternoon sessions, which are to involve eight cardinals from all the world's continents, and the governor of Vatican City State, will be conducted in Italian.
An Italian bishop who is serving as the Council's secretary will be the only other person to attend.
However, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi SJ re-iterated earlier statements that the Council was "only consultative" and "does not have any decision-making authority".
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, he stressed it should not be seen as a form of episcopal collegiality - that is, embodying shared authority between the Bishop of Rome and other bishops.
Rather, he said it was "meant to enrich the Church with a new method of consultation" for the Pope.