The Fifth General Congregation of the College of Cardinals was held this morning, Thursday, 7 March 2013. All the Cardinal-electors, all 115 of them who will be voting to elect the new Pope in the upcoming Conclave, are already in Rome and had taken part in the meeting this morning.

No date has yet been fixed for the start of the Conclave, although the afternoon session, that is the Sixth General Congregation may decide just that, or the Seventh one, which will be held tomorrow, Friday, 8 March 2013 morning at 9.30 am. Fr. Federico Lombardi, the head of the Holy See Press Office mentioned that he is not certain whether the College of Cardinals will be deciding the date of the Conclave by the afternoon meeting or not.

If there is any immediate decision on the Conclave date in the afternoon meeting, Fr. Lombardi will announce it through message to journalists at 7 pm Rome time today (Thursday), or corresponding to 6 pm UTC / 1 pm EST / 10 am PST / Friday at 1 am for West Indonesia and UTC+7 areas / Friday at 2 am for Singapore, Malaysia, HK, China, and other UTC+8 areas.

The Fifth General Congregation saw more Cardinals using their chances to speak, with 51 Cardinals having spoken so far in the past five General Congregations. As today’s fifth meeting saw the release of economic reports of the Holy See from several organisations in the Roman Curia handling the Holy See’s economics, some of the Cardinal’s speeches address those economic reports, while others focus more on the role of the Church in charitable works in the world, and the work in ecumenism and dialogue with other religions.

16 interventions were made by the Cardinals today, with 3 interventions dealing with the economic reports as mentioned, and others discussing the matters of the conclave, most importantly the profile, the much needed profile and who the next Pope should be and the necessary qualities he should have, and what is his characteristics that the Cardinals should seek in electing the right person for the position.

A video was shown in the press briefing on the works in the Sistine Chapel and the installation of the chimney and the stoves for burning the ballots, as well as the erasure of Pope Benedict XVI’s coat-of-arms from the Vatican Garden’s large coat-of-arms made with plants and flowers, depicting the Pope’s coat-of-arms. The particular coat-of-arms of Pope Benedict XVI was removed, while the papal tiara and the golden and silver keys of the Papacy remained in place.

The fifth meeting also highlighted issue of the oath of secrecy, which are taken in the case of the Conclave, the General Congregation meeting, as well as when the College deem it necessary for media blackout to be imposed to avoid any unwanted leak of information.

It is not certain at this time whether there will be two meetings tomorrow, Friday, 8 March 2013 as it was today. The confirmed meeting is the morning session’s Seventh General Congregation, which may indeed be the one that decides the Conclave date. After all, Fr. Lombardi made it clear in the press briefing that the Conclave is strictly more a time for solemn prayers and decisions, and voting itself.

All forms of discussions, discernments, speeches, and raising up issues pertaining to the Church should indeed be done at this time, during the General Congregation, and not during the Conclave. Hence, the reason why the General Congregation meetings should not be rushed, but rather be meticulously done, so that when these meetings are over, possibly by this weekend, the Cardinal-electors will be ready to enter the Sistine Chapel for the Conclave, possibly this coming Monday, 11 March 2013.

In the meanwhile, let us continue to pray for the Church, for all our Cardinals, and the Cardinal-electors, and for the smooth proceedings of the remaining General Congregations, as well as the Conclave later.