THIRD SESSION
Catholic Herald Correspondent VATICAN CITY
POPE PAUL VI on Monday will open the third session of the Second Vatican Council in St. Peter's by concelebrating Mass with 24 Council Fathers including Cardinals Tisserant, Lercaro and Larraona. This is the first time he has concelebrated, and the aim is to symbolise the collegial
character of the episcopate.
This theme of the unity of pope and bishops in the episcopate was sounded in a letter addressed by the Pope at the weekend to Cardinal Tisserant, Dean of the Sacred College.
The letter sets four goals for the Council : renewal within the Church; unity of the separated Christians; reawakening religious consciousness in the world; and peace and justice among men.
Pope Paul urges that all the faithful, and not just clerics and religious, should join in prayer and penance for the Council's aims, and he has set aside Sunday. September 27 as a special day of prayer for this intention. On that day, the faithful are urged to recite the Lord's Prayer for the Council's success.
LAST SESSION?
The Holy Father announced at Castelgandolfo on Tuesday that some nuns and lay women will be allowed to attend some of the Council debates in the forthcoming session.
There are already a dozen male lay auditors in the Council chamber. Now there will be some superiors of women's religious congregations to start with, and later some representatives of the international lay women's erganisations.
'Tipped' for Inclusion is Miss Rosemary Goldie, executive secretary of the permanent committee for international congresses of the lay apostolate. (See Back Page) As at the second session, there will be no initial procession on Monday. Pope Paul will enter the basilica when the Fathers have already found their places individually. During the Mass he will deliver an address in Latin.
The first working day will be Tuesday, when the Fathers will debate the Schema on the Church.
It seems probable that there will have to be a fourth Council session next year—mainly to tackle the Schema on the Church in the Modern World, now Schema 13.