Pope, cardinal advisers looking at major overhaul of Roman Curia
October 04, 2013 - Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals are laying
out plans to completely overhaul the Roman Curia, underlining its role of "service
to the universal church and the local churches," the Vatican spokesman said on Thursday.
As the Pope and the eight cardinals he named to advise him were about to begin the
final session of their Oct. 1-3 meeting, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman,
said the role and responsibilities of the Vatican secretary of state, the revamping
of the world Synod of Bishops, and the Vatican's attention to the role and responsibility
of laity also were major themes of discussion. Father Lombardi said the group's agenda
was partially dictated by the pope's own timetable. Pope Francis has named Archbishop
Pietro Parolin to be his secretary of state and has given him an Oct. 15 start date,
so it made sense to discuss how the pope and cardinals see his role in a renewed curia.
Regarding Blessed John Paul II's 1988 constitution "Pastor Bonus," on the running
of the central government of the Catholic Church in the Vatican and its relations
with the universal Church, Father Lombardi said the pope and the cardinals emphasized
the role of the Secretariat of State as "the secretariat of the pope," and said the
discussions included "the hypothesis of a new figure -- the 'moderator of the curia'"
to ensure greater communication and cooperation among the Curia offices. Fr. Lombardi
indicated the discussions are going clearly in the direction of a new apostolic constitution
to replace "Pastor Bonus," and not simply "cosmetic retouches or marginal modifications"
of the 1988 document. Possible changes to the organization of the world Synod
of Bishops, which has been a periodic gathering of bishops from around the world to
discuss a specific theme of church life, were moved to the top of the meeting's agenda
because the synod council will meet at the Vatican Oct. 7-8, the spokesman said.
Father Lombardi said the pope is expected to decide the theme for the next synod "in
the coming days." The eight cardinals - six of whom head dioceses - brought to
the meeting with the pope suggestions they received from church leaders around the
world. One of the topics mentioned most often, Father Lombardi said, was concern for
the role of the laity in the Church and the world. The pope and his cardinal advisers
talked about "how to ensure that this dimension of the church's reality is more adequately
and effectively recognized and followed in the governance of the church," Father Lombardi
said. The vast majority of the Catholic Church's 1.2 billion members are laypeople,
the spokesman said. Their activities and needs are followed by the Pontifical Council
for the Laity, which is "very active," he said, but does not have the profile or authority
of a Vatican congregation, such as those for bishops, for priests and for religious.
Pope Francis has asked his eight cardinal advisers for counsel on the Vatican's
finances, as well, Father Lombardi said, but the theme was not treated in depth at
the October meeting because Pope Francis also appointed several special commissions
to look into specific aspects of the Vatican's finances, budgeting process and the
Vatican bank and those commissions are still at work. The Council of Cardinals
is expected to meet again in January or February, Father Lombardi said, and to continue
corresponding with each other and with Pope Francis in the meantime. The eight
members, who represent six continents, are: Cardinals Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa,
retired Archbishop of Santiago, Chile; Oswald Gracias of Bombay, India; Reinhard Marx
of Munich and Freising, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo; Sean
P. O'Malley of Boston; George Pell of Sydney; Giuseppe Bertello, president of the
Governatorate of Vatican City StateVatican City State; and Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga
of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, president of Caritas Internationalis, the worldwide confederation
of national Catholic charities. (Source: CNS)