On February 3, 2007, Rosales was appointed for a five-year term on the 15-member Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Concerns of the Apostolic See. In 2008, Cardinal Rosales offered his resignation from the governance of the archdiocese, as required under canon law on reaching the age of 75, but Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re communicated that the Holy See had not accepted it. In the same year also, Cardinal Rosales invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit the Philippines, being the third largest Catholic nation in the world; however, the Pope declined due to heavy schedule.