Friday, Cardinal-designate Wuerl was on the job in his new role as Cardinal as he participated in a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. A wide range of topics were discussed. One topic the Cardinal-designate found very interesting was the one on religious freedom both from an international perspective and a local perspective. Cardinal-Wuerl said the discussion about religious freedom is particularly important, not only because Christians face violence in places like Iraq, but also because of threats in increasingly secular societies like the United States “where faith-based organizations are told they can’t carry out their activities according to their own conscience.” Read the whole article from Catholic News Service. It is a good preview of the kinds of issues on which Pope Benedict will be seeking advice.
There was also time for celebration as more than 200 family and friends gathered at a restaurant near the Vatican for supper and a song written for Cardinal-designate Wuerl,just for this occasion, and sung by the Archdiocese of Washington seminarians studying in Rome. If you have ever visited Piazza Navona in Rome, surely you heard a group singing “Volare…” As they say, when in Rome do as the Romans and indeed that was the melody of the evening!