178 of the 241 members of the College of Cardinals took part in the first session of the two-day extraordinary consistory (program), during which they pondered the question, “In what kind of world are we called to proclaim the Gospel?”
According to the Vatican News’s summary of the confidential deliberations, the cardinals, gathered in groups, spoke about the following topics, among others:
- “increasing polarization within societies and communities, generating political tensions and violence and fueled by social divisions, misinformation and forms of communication that fail to foster encounter”
- “the suffering caused in many parts of the world by the lack of respect for religious and ethnic minorities, undermining religious freedom and giving rise to hostility, and at times violence, particularly against the Church”
- “excessive individualism, the crisis of the family, and the growing loneliness experienced by both elderly people and young people, identifying these as contributing factors to even more serious problems, including rising suicide rates and drug use”
- “the awareness of a widespread sense of distrust, fatalism and powerlessness towards institutions, democracy and the future, linked also to declining birth rates, the growth of criminal organizations, youth delinquency and drug trafficking”
- “the need to address migration in a humane and Christian way, recognizing how it is reshaping peoples, societies and communities while making effective integration policies increasingly urgent amid new forms of exclusion”