Also present at the meeting with the cardinal advisers of the Holy Father were Giuliva di Berardino, a consecrated woman of the Ordo Virginum (“Order of Virgins”) of the Diocese of Verona, Italy, and Linda Pocher, a teacher at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences “Auxilium” who previously participated in the last meeting in 2023.
In this most recent session, like the one held in December 2023, the members of the council delved deeper into the topic of the presence of women in the Church.
During the 2023 meeting, the pontiff invited theologians to reflect on the Church as “woman and spouse” and said that “one of the sins committed” has been the tendency to “masculinize the Church.”
The Council of Cardinals, also known as “C9” for its nine members, is the group of cardinals that collaborates directly with Pope Francis in the government of the Church. It has its origin in the general congregations that preceded the conclave in which Pope Francis was elected.
The C9 group has been functioning since September 2013, just six months after Pope Francis assumed the Petrine ministry.
Its objective is to help the pontiff “in the government of the universal Church” as well as to work on a revision of the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus, which governs the Roman Curia, as Pope Francis has stated.