Cardinals discuss evangelization, interfaith relations, abuse; new cardinal assistants chosen
April 29, 2025
On April 28, members of the College of Cardinals met in their fifth general congregation since Pope Francis’s death. Over 180 of the 252 members of the College of Cardinals were in attendance, the Vatican newspaper reported.
In addition to setting May 7 as the date of the beginning of the conclave, the cardinals discussed evangelization, interfaith relations, abuse, and unnamed other topics, according to the Vatican newspaper. “About 20 cardinals” delivered interventions, or brief speeches, during the fifth general congregation, which began at 9:00 AM with prayer and concluded at 12:25 PM.
Particular Congregation of Cardinals
The apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis—promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II in 1996, and modified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and 2013—provides norms for the vacancy of the Apostolic See and the election of the Roman Pontiff.
The apostolic constitution entrusts more important matters to the general congregations and quotidian affairs to a four-member particular congregation, composed of the camerlengo (chamberlain) of the Holy Roman Church and three cardinal assistants. The camerlengo is Cardinal Kevin Farrell; the three cardinal assistants—one each from the orders of cardinal bishops, cardinal priests, and cardinal deacons—are chosen by lot.
During the first general congregation on April 22, Cardinals Pietro Parolin (episcopal order), Stanisław Ryłko (presbyteral order), and Fabio Baggio (diaconal order) were chosen by lot to three-day terms as cardinal assistants. New cardinal assistants were presumably chosen by lot on April 25, but Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, did not include their names in its coverage of the general congregation that day.
On April 28, the new cardinal assistants chosen by lot were Cardinals Reinhard Marx, Luis Antonio Tagle, and Dominique Mamberti. The Vatican newspaper reported that “Marx, as coordinator of the Council for the Economy, always remains in the trio of cardinals who help the Camerlengo”—but that statement appears to be inaccurate.
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