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Catholic World News News Feature

No set agenda for pre-consistory meeting, cardinal-elect says March 22, 2006

No agenda has been set for a meeting of the College of Cardinals on March 23, according to one of the invited participants. The meeting comes on the eve of a consistory at which Pope Benedict XVI will elevate 15 new members of the College of Cardinals.

Father Albert Vanhoye, a French Jesuit who will receive his red hat on March 24, told the Roman news agency I Media that he received an invitation to the meeting before the consistory. "So I will go," said the Scripture scholar, "even without yet being a cardinal."

Father Vanhoye, the former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, said that the invitation came in a letter from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State. He said that the meeting was intended for "consultation and prayer," and that cardinals would have the opportunity to air their own views freely, without any prior consultation.

The Jesuit scholar, who is 82 years old, said that he did not expect his new status as a cardinal to involve any major changes in his life. "Being retired to begin with, I do not expect to be given any special assignment," he said. "If the Holy Father asks me to do some service for the good of the Church, I will willingly accept it; but I am not expecting anything."