But hidden in the synod participants' 40-page synthesis are some surprising gems that could lead to significant reform in the church.

The hidden gems

The first is a new stress on lay involvement.

Compared with other Christian churches, the Catholic Church is very hierarchical. This synod, especially the conversations at roundtables, was structured so that lay voices, including women and young people, were heard and respected.

"Synod path called by the Holy Father is to involve all the baptized," the report notes. "We ardently desire this to happen and want to commit ourselves to making it possible."

Secondly, the synod promotes "Conversation in the Spirit."

The term refers to a practice that "enables authentic listening in order to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Churches," the report explains.

It adds that "‘conversation' expresses more than mere dialogue: it interweaves thought and feeling, creating a shared vital space."

Third, the report acknowledges disagreements and uncertainties.

In the past, the hierarchy tended to cover them up, presenting a united front to the faithful and the world.

But on its first page the synod's report acknowledges "The multiplicity of interventions and the plurality of positions voiced in the Assembly,".

It admits "that it is not easy to listen to different ideas, without immediately giving in to the temptation to counter the views expressed."

In each following chapter, any disagreements and uncertainties are listed under "matters for consideration" that "require deepening our understanding pastorally, theologically, and canonically."

The report also acknowledges its divides.

"The Church too is affected by polarisation and distrust in vital matters such as liturgical life and moral, social and theological reflection," it reads.

"We need to recognise the causes of each through dialogue and undertake courageous processes of revitalising communion and processes of reconciliation to overcome them."

Fourth, the report addresses the concerns of women.

"Women cry out for justice in societies still marked by sexual violence, economic inequality and the tendency to treat them as objects," it says.

"Women are scarred by trafficking, forced migration and war. Pastoral accompaniment and vigorous advocacy for women should go hand in hand."

The church must "avoid repeating the mistake of talking about women as an issue or a problem.

Instead, we desire to promote a Church in which men and women dialogue together, in order to understand more deeply the horizon of God's project, that sees them together as protagonists, without subordination, exclusion and competition."

The synod concluded that in the church "It is urgent to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral care and ministry."

Fifth, it did not forget the poor, "who do not have the things they need to lead a dignified life."

Instead it insists on their dignity, cautioning the church to avoid "viewing those living in poverty in terms of ‘them' and ‘us,' as ‘objects' of the Church's charity.

Putting those who experience poverty at the center and learning from them is something the Church must do more and more."

Sixth, it charges the church with combating racism and xenophobia, saying it must take action against "a world where the number of migrants and refugees is increasing while the willingness to welcome them is decreasing and where the foreigner is viewed with increasing suspicion."

In addition, "Systems within the Church that create or maintain racial injustice need to be identified and addressed. Processes for healing and reconciliation should be created, with the help of those harmed, to eradicate the sin of racism."

Seventh, abuse in the church must be dealt with.

It suggests that the church explore the possibility of setting up a juridical body separate from the bishop to handle accusations of clerical abuse, saying, "It is necessary to develop further structures dedicated to the prevention of abuse."

Eighth, the synod participants called for reforming priestly formation.

"Formation should not create an artificial environment separate from the ordinary life of the faithful," the report said.

It called for "a thorough review of formation programmes, with particular attention to how we can foster the contribution of women and families to them."

It recommended joint formation programmes for "the entire People of God (laity, consecrated and ordained ministers)."

It also called on episcopal conferences to "create a culture of lifelong formation and learning."

Ninth, the synod called for a regular review of how bishops, priests and deacons carry out their ministry in their diocese.

This would include "regular review of the bishop's performance, with reference to the style of his authority, the economic administration of the diocese's assets, and the functioning of participatory bodies, and safeguarding against all possible kinds of abuse."

Tenth, the report took on liturgical language.

It says the texts used in Catholic rites should be "more accessible to the faithful and more embodied in the diversity of cultures."

It later suggested that liturgy and church documents must be "more attentive to the use of language that takes into equal consideration both men and women, and also includes a range of words, images and narratives that draw more widely on women's experience."

Eleventh, it raised the possibility of offering Communion to non-Catholics, or what it called "Eucharistic hospitality (Communicatio in sacris)."

Saying it was a pastoral issue as much as an ecclesial or theological one, the report noted that such hospitality was "of particular importance to inter-church couples."

Twelfth, the report took aim at what it means to be a deacon in the church.

As it is, the deaconate is largely seen as a steppingstone to priesthood.

The report questions the emphasis on deacons' liturgical ministry rather than "service to those living in poverty and who are needy in the community.

Therefore, we recommend assessing how the diaconal ministry has been implemented since Vatican II."

Thirteenth, the reform of the Roman Curia must continue.

The synod affirmed Pope Francis' statement in the Apostolic Constitution "Praedicate evangelium," released in March of 2022, that "the Roman Curia does not stand between the Pope and the Bishops, rather it places itself at the service of both in ways that are proper to the nature of each."

The synod called for "a more attentive listening to the voices of local churches" by the Curia, especially during periodic visits of bishops to Rome.

These should be occasions for "open and mutual exchange that fosters communion and a true exercise of collegiality and synodality."

The synod also asked for a careful evaluation of "whether it is opportune to ordain the prelates of the Roman Curia as bishops," implicitly suggesting that laypeople might hold top Vatican positions.

Fourteenth, the report said canon law needs updating.

"A wider revision of the Code of Canon Law," it reads, "is called for at this time" to emphasise the synodality of the church at all levels.

For example, it suggests, pastoral councils should be mandatory in parishes and dioceses. It also held up for imitation a recent plenary council of Australia.

Lastly, the synod wants to promote small Christian communities, "who live the closeness of the day-to-day, around the Word of God and the Eucharist" and by their nature foster a synodal style.

"We are called to enhance their potential," the synod's members said.

You will not find these gems written about in the media, but if we let the media tell us what to see in the synod, we might miss important opportunities for church reform.

• First published in Religion News Service
• Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at RNS. Previously he was a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter (2015-17) and an associate editor (1978-85) and editor in chief (1998-2005) at America magazine.

"As the pope has often repeated, it is not for us to serve the economy, but for the economy to serve us," said Father Guerrero at a symposium on Tuesday in Rome.

Guerrero, 63, is the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. He was appointed as the Vatican's financial czar in November 2019, filling the post left vacant by Australian Cardinal George Pell.

"The economy is not the primary activity of the Roman Curia. But it helps us to make it possible to carry out the mission of the Curia. It must do so without losing the credibility of the Church's mission," Father Guerrero said.

Asked to comment on the consequences Curia reform will likely have on the economic bodies of the Holy See, the Spanish Jesuit insisted on the need for transparency in the use of funds.

"And when it is necessary not to make public the use of certain funds, the request must be submitted to a special commission which will then control the use of the sum granted," he detailed.

He pointed to the existence of this commission which Pope Francis instituted in September 2020 to manage the exceptions to the rule of budgetary transparency now obligatory in the Roman Curia.

Several top Curia officials also attended the symposium.

Among them was Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, one of the leading architects of the Curia's reform.

"We are living in an era of change," he underlined.

"We are no longer in a regime of Christendom. That means we are no longer in a time of doctrine, but of proclaiming the faith," said the 74-year-old Italian, one of the pope's closest aides.

During his address, Cardinal Semeraro emphasised that the Curia must be seen as a "structure of service", not one of power.

"Being at the service means being part of an adaptable, flexible reality," he said.

The remark was seen as a direct criticism of any form of rigidity or resistance to change detected in some Vatican officials.

Sources

• La Croix International

And some observers wonder if this is the start of a trend that could continue in 2020, when at least two more such posts are expected to come free.

• French Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who has led the Congregation of Bishops since 2010, will conclude a second five-year term in the role on June 30.
• Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, passed the conclusion date of his first term this Nov. 23.

"Francis is really beginning to put together a team of his own inside the Curia," said Marco Politi, a respected Italian journalist who is author of nearly a dozen books on the Vatican.

"Many of Francis' supporters have criticized him behind the scenes for not having put in place a spoils system at the Vatican and for not putting people dedicated to his reform agenda in key posts," said Politi, a former long-time Vatican correspondent for the daily newspaper La Repubblica.

"Future appointments to the posts now occupied by Cardinals Sarah and Ouellet will permit Francis to create a more uniform leadership at the Vatican's highest levels," he said.

Although Francis' plans for Ouellet and Sarah are unknown, Ouellet turned 75, the traditional retirement age for bishops and cardinals, last June. Sarah will turn 75 in June 2020.

A third Vatican official who appears near retirement is Italian Cardinal Beniamino Stella, the prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy, who is 78 and passed the limit on his five-year term on Sept. 21, 2018.

The Vatican does not publicize Francis' choices on whether or not to renew his officials' terms of office.

In response to a question regarding whether Francis has renewed Stella or Sarah's mandates, the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, noted that heads of Vatican offices frequently serve beyond the dates of expiration of their terms, at the pope's discretion.

Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and historian who has written extensively on Francis' papacy, said he did not know whether the pontiff might be wanting to free up space at the top of Vatican offices in order to call in allies.

"This is an open question for me," said Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University. Earlier in his papacy, said the theologian, Francis appeared to think that "he could do without the Curia."

"I don't know if he has changed his mind compared to the first years," said Faggioli. "It is very possible."

Neither Ouellet nor Sarah have openly criticized Francis. Both have, however, made clear that they disagree with the pontiff in certain areas.

Ouellet, for example, publicly opposed the proposal of October's Synod of Bishops for the Amazon to allow for the priestly ordination of married men on a limited basis in order to meet sacramental needs in the nine-nation region.

And the cardinal held a book launch at the Vatican days before the start of the synod for a volume enunciating his views, titled Friends of the Bridegroom: For a Renewed Vision of Priestly Celibacy.

For his part, Sarah famously waited a year to implement a 2014 request from Francis that he issue a decree making clear that women are allowed to participate in Holy Thursday foot-washing rites. Continue reading

The last major reorganization of the Curia came with St. John Paul II's apostolic constitution, "Pastor Bonus" (The Good Shepherd) in 1988, which — in its very first sentence — spoke of Jesus entrusting the apostles with "the mission of making disciples in all nations and of preaching the Gospel to every creature."

To facilitate that mission in the modern world, St. John Paul had said, the church needs a structure to promote "communion," which "glues the whole church together."

Pope Francis' successor document to "Pastor Bonus" is tentatively called "Praedicate Evangelium" (Preach the Gospel), and drafts of it were sent to bishops and a variety of experts for comment in the spring.

Of course, promoting the communion of the church and preaching the Gospel are essential tasks for the popes. For Catholics they are inextricably bound together, and one makes little sense without the other.

But when one is emphasized more than the other, priorities change.

The energy of the Curia can be directed to promoting unity, offering direction and gathering suggestions and ideas, a somewhat inward gaze that could increase the perceived authority of curial officials.

The risk is a tendency toward uniformity and thinking that the closer one is to the center, the more authority he has.

On the other hand, the Curia's efforts can focus on encouraging outreach and new initiatives for evangelization, an outward gaze that could decrease the perceived authority of curial officials.

The risk here is possible fragmentation and a sense that every diocese, movement and group is free to do its own thing.

Finding the right balance has been a goal of Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals.

At the pre-conclave meetings before the election of Pope Francis in 2013, cardinals said one thing they wanted under a new pope was a reform of the Roman Curia to promote efficiency and a greater sense of service to bishops around the world.

Bishops from every continent who have made their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican over the past six years have said that already is occurring.

Previously, many have said, they would visit a Vatican office and be told what they needed to do; sometimes it even approached a scolding.

Now, they say, the predominant attitude is: "How can we help you?"

The structural reorganization of the Roman Curia has taken much more time than many people expected.

Six years ago the pope and members of the Council of Cardinals began studying each Vatican office, its responsibilities, special projects and staffing. Only then did they begin discussing ways to reform the Curia. Continue reading

• Image: The Dialogue

Doctrine alone is no longer enough to reach an increasingly post-Christian world, says Bishop Marcello Semeraro, Secretary of the Council of Cardinals.

He points out that a "fundamental perspective" of Pope Francis's reform efforts come from his emphasis on a missionary Church in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.

"The pope speaks of missionary conversion, transformation of the Church," Semeraro says.

"We are no longer in the regime of Christendom. What counts above all is the proclamation of faith."

Perceptions are rapidly changing, and much of modern society is "no longer within Christianity," he says.

In the current cultural climate, Semeraro says "it is not enough to focus on the order of doctrine, but above all the proclamation … a proclamation which brings joy, otherwise it wouldn't be the Gospel."

When the Council of Cardinal Advisors began the consultation process for Curia reform back in 2013, Semeraro says almost all the Vatican's dicasteries had been heard in a real "general review of public policies" of the Vatican and the Church's government.

The new draft constitution has now been sent to all of them and, in an unprecedented move, to episcopal conferences, universities and canon lawyers.

"The Curia is a service structure and it was necessary to reform it so that it better corresponds to the needs of the world", Semeraro explains.

"It was created by Pope Sixtus V at a time when the law of the Church and the law of the State corresponded. However, we cannot pretend that the world has not changed."

Some points of the new apostolic constitution, provisionally known as Predicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), have been closely examined.

For example, in the section about the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, there is a reference to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

The text comes from the United Nations (UN) and not of the Church.

This has raised the concerns of those who want to continue to see the Church as a "perfect society" separated from a world from which it has nothing to learn. They are contesting the UN reference.

Others wonder about the place of women in the future Curia.

Semeraro says in future, women will not only be able to be members of the various dicasteries but also to take up the highest positions, including being prefect of the dicastery.

"The sacrament of holy orders will no longer be required for positions of responsibility, only baptism," the secretary of the Council of Cardinals says.

The strong place given to episcopal conferences in the future constitution has caused grumbling of apostolic nuncios, who recently gathered in the Vatican.

They are concerned their power over local episcopates may be diminished.

Pope Francis's recent closed-door discussion with the nuncios gave him an opportunity to re-explain how he sees their role.

The Council of Cardinals' next task will be to study the many reactions to its draft constitution.

Some bishops' conferences have yet to meet to discuss the draft, while others have not even received it.

Semeraro says the document may have been blocked by the antivirus software in the mailboxes of some bishops' conference presidents.

"Perhaps [the Council of Cardinals] will even be able to hand over the final draft constitution to the pope in September. It will then be up to him to decide whether or not to publish it," he says.

Source

• La Croix
• Crux Now

A draft of the proposal, expected to be published at the end of June, was obtained by a Spanish weekly, Vida Nueva, and as the Vatican has not pushed back on its analysis, the Catholic News Service and other Vatican reporters are taking it seriously.

There are things to like in the Vida Neuva's report on the proposal, titled "Praedicate evangelium" ("Preach the Gospel").

The document stresses that the Curia is in service to the pope and the college of bishops, not just the pope.

This is an attempt to stop the Curia from seeing itself as a power between the pope and the bishops.

The Curia's work as service is a point Pope Francis has made strongly in his talks to its members who work in the Vatican.

Francis realizes that this will require a change in thinking, a change in the culture of the Curia.

It is good that service is emphasized in "Praedicate evangelium," but putting it in writing will not make it happen.

Francis' view of the Curia is also represented when the alleged draft holds up the Curia as an instrument of evangelization. Evangelization is at the heart of what the church is about under Francis.

As beautiful as this sounds, this will not work.

To attempt it is foolish.

Central offices do not sell products; they manage people in the field, who sell the products.

Similarly, the Curia, which is a bureaucracy, is not an instrument of evangelization. It should support others in their work of evangelization.

This wrapping everything under the mantra of evangelization reminds me of the 1980s, when most U.S. dioceses renamed their chanceries "pastoral centers."

The name change did not make them pastoral.

They continued to do exactly the same things as before.

The alleged draft creates a new dicastery or office for evangelization by combining the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples and the Council for the New Evangelization. Subordinated to it will be the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith.

In the Catholic Church, when you hear that two entities are going to be merged, half the time what is really happening is that one of them is being closed.

This happens with parishes all the time.

My guess is that this is what is going on with the Council for the New Evangelization.

Perhaps this is also what is happening to the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, which was a doctrinal watchdog under earlier papacies. Is the watchdog being retired?

More importantly, whoever is combining these offices appears not to know what the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples actually does.

Its principal job is selecting bishops for Africa and Asia and other so-called mission territories.

It has more in common with the Congregation for Bishops than the Council for the New Evangelization and the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith.

The plan described in Vida Nueva also fails to understand contemporary management practices.

Many bristle at the idea that the church could learn anything from contemporary multinational corporations, but anyone who has studied the history of the Roman Curia knows that it has borrowed ideas from the secular world, including the Roman Empire, the 14th-century French chancellery, royal courts and absolute monarchs.

So why not learn from contemporary international entities?

Let me sketch out an alternative reform plan that attempts to learn from modern corporations.

First, keep and strengthen the Secretariat for Economy (finances).

Give it real authority to impose contemporary accounting and business practices on Vatican entities.

Disobedience should get people fired.

Give it control over all money and investments, including those of the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples.

Second, create a human resources office.

Under it would be everything involved in the selection, training, continuing education and advancement of anyone in church ministry.

This would include the norms for screening candidates, for running seminaries, and for the selection of bishops.

Both clerical and lay ministers, including religious, would be included here.

Once personnel and finances are taken care of, the Vatican would need to decide whether it wants to organize the Curia around geographical regions or product lines.

The Curia currently is organized both ways and will probably continue to be, but which is emphasized can make a difference.

In an organization based on geography, each continent could have its own office to deal with its countries' national bishops' conferences.

The continental offices would have the authority to grant exceptions to general laws and to permit experimentation in local churches.

This would encourage "subsidiarity and enculturation" — words the church uses to describe decentralization and adaptation to local conditions.

Currently, the church is split up geographically with the Congregation for Oriental Churches responsible for the eastern churches (mostly the Middle East and parts of India and Eastern Europe), the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples handling the mission territories (mostly Africa and Asia), and the rest (Europe and the Americas) overseen by the Congregation for Bishops.

While these offices have great control over the appointment of bishops, they are given little leeway to modify the church's three product lines for local conditions.

What are the products lines of the church? Word, sacraments and charity.

In the past, the first two were controlled by the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

CDF had final say over anything to do with doctrine, teaching and theologians. It also carefully supervised ecumenical and interreligious dialogues.

When it came to the Word, it was supreme.

Divine Worship controlled the celebration of the Eucharist and other sacraments, including texts, rituals and translations.

These offices allowed little tailoring of worship or teaching to respond to different cultural and religious conditions.

Uniformity in products was prized over adaptation to customer preferences.

Charity, the third product line, is spread across a number of offices in the Vatican, including the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide) and the Council Cor Unum.

But the Vatican has little control over what was happening in local Catholic charities, which is probably why so much good is being done on the local level.

Finally, what is missing in all this is an office for research and development.

Innovation would not be needed if everyone were listening to the church hierarchy with bated breath, if all our Eucharistic celebrations had standing room only and if the poor were having their needs met.

If you live in the real world, you know that our 13th-century products are not selling.

Time to get creative.

There might also be an office for liaison and dialogue with government officials and leaders of other churches and religions.

And with all the problems in the church, there is a need for a department of justice to investigate and prosecute financial and sexual abuses by bishops, priests and others.

Many of my liberal friends think that the way to reform the Curia is by increasing the role of the laity, especially women. But which laity, which women?

There are lots of laity, including women, working in conservative chanceries and seminaries across the country. They are sometimes worse than the clerics.

I am not impressed by the reforms described in the leaks.

The only hope is that they will throw the Curia into such chaos so that sometime in the future there can be real reform.

• Thomas Reese SJ is is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America.
• Image: CNN

Six years later, his Curia reform proposals are reportedly to be promulgated at the end of June, although they will probably be leaked earlier.

Will they satisfy the critics of the governing body?

Reforming the Vatican Curia has been a constant topic since the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965. The Curia has been accused of being inefficient, Byzantine, dictatorial, and out of touch with the needs of ordinary Catholics.

On top of that, it has been plagued by financial and sexual scandals.

Popes have rolled out reforms, but they have had little impact.

Paul VI did the most in the years following Vatican II, by requiring heads of Curia offices to submit their resignations at age 75 and by forcing bishops and cardinals off the congregations (the committees of cardinals and bishops that supervise the work of Vatican offices) when they reach 80.

He also created new offices, in response to the council's priorities, for dialogue with other Christian churches and with other religions.

He created another office to focus on issues of justice and peace.

Later popes added offices to deal with their pet projects.

But amid this innovation, the existing offices were not substantially changed.

Conflict arose between the old offices and the new, as when those involved in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue were reprimanded by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Francis made some initial changes in the Curia when he became pope, merging some of the post-Vatican II offices so that fewer people report directly to him.

He also combined the various media offices, but because of ineffectual leadership, the merger threw Vatican communications into chaos.

Perhaps his greatest impact has been on the culture of the Curia, rather than its structure.

His constant emphasis on service and listening has changed how Curia officials interact with visiting bishops.

In the past, 55 minutes of an hour-long meeting would be devoted to Curia officials lecturing the bishops. Now, more time is given to listening to the bishops' concerns.

The new reform proposals, however, are being presented as a comprehensive reform of church structures. Here are three questions to ask in evaluating these reforms.

Does the reform convert the Vatican from a court to a civil service?

The Vatican is still organized as an 18th-century royal court where princes (cardinals) and nobles (bishops) help the king (pope) govern the nation (church).

The problem with such a structure is that you can't fire princes and nobles when they prove incompetent. The church needs a competent civil service, not a court.

I have argued in the past that Curia officials should not be bishops or cardinals, which creates the impression that they are middle management between the bishops and the pope. Rather, they should be priests and laypersons, with expertise in their area of responsibility.

As such, it would be clear they are not part of the magisterium. Rather, they are servants of the pope and the college of bishops. They are staff, not rulers.

Does the reform foster decentralization?

What decisions currently made in the Vatican will now be made at the diocesan or episcopal conference level?

For example, more than two decades ago, the English-speaking conferences of bishops developed a very good translation of the liturgy, which was vetoed by Rome.

The Vatican then forced the bishops to accept the terrible translation we have today.

If the Vatican does not give up its stranglehold on this kind of decision-making, the new reforms will be meaningless.

If every important decision must be reviewed by Rome, then things have not changed.

In the past, so-called progressives have pushed for decentralization and traditionalists have promoted papal power. Will this change now that progressives like the pope and traditionalists question his policies?

It will take another five years before enough of the old guard retire and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops catches up with Pope Francis.

In the meantime, do progressives want to give it more power?

Does the reform move the Vatican toward separating executive, legislative and judicial powers?

Because the Vatican is modeled on an absolute monarchy, there is no separation of powers.

Today, Curia offices make the rules, police the rules and pass judgment on those who violate the rules.

A separation of powers would mean giving more authority to the synod of bishops, making it more like a real legislature. Perhaps the synod could have standing committees that would replace the committees of cardinals that make up Vatican congregations.

The Vatican also needs a separate department of justice to investigate and prosecute canonical crimes, whether they be sexual, financial or otherwise. The accused should be tried before an independent judiciary.

I expect, unfortunately, that the answers to all my questions will be "no."

Although I love Francis, I expect to be disappointed by his reform proposals.

Francis is a pastor, not a management expert.

In addition, there are strong opponents of reform in the Curia.

Some of the boxes on the organizational chart will be moved around, but it will make little difference.

Finally, all of us who propose reforms need to do so with humility.

Social science and experience warn us that every reform has unanticipated consequences. That is why the church has tended to muddle through with incremental change rather than real revolution.

On the other hand, incremental change will not deal with the issues facing the church today. More is needed.

• Thomas Reese SJ is is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America.

They dedicated much of their time to the re-reading of the draft of the new Apostolic Constitution of the Roman Curia.

Among the various topics the Council of Cardinals discussed were:

• How the Roman Curia can be at the service of the Holy Father and the particular Churches
• The pastoral character of the curia's activity
• The institution and operation of the third section of the Secretary of State, which has been established to oversee the Holy See's diplomatic corps
• The announcement of the Gospel and the missionary spirit as a perspective that characterises the activity of the whole Curia.

During the meetings, the pope and cardinals received an update on the progress of the reform of the Vatican communications system by Msgr. Lucio Ruiz, secretary and acting prefect of the Secretariat for Communications.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley, head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM), gave a report on the work of the commission on behalf of children and vulnerable adults, including an explanation of what took place during the PCPM's recent plenary meeting in Rome.

All members of the Council were present for the meeting except Cardinal Pell.

Notably, there was no update on the state of the Vatican's financial reforms, something that has usually been on the council's agenda.

Pope Francis attended the meetings on Monday and Tuesday but was unable to be present on Wednesday because of the General Audience.

The next meeting of the Council of Cardinals will take place from 11 to 13 June.

Source

• vaticannews.va
• zenit.org
• catholicnewsagency.com
• Image: vaticannews.va

Adding, the work is "nearly complete at the level of proposals made to the Pope.

"I think that within a few months this revision will be more or less complete.

"Then the Pope will have at his disposition the proposals that regard all the Dicasteries and I would expect him to decide how and when to actuate them."

The Council - nicknamed the C9 - have been working on the Curia reform to ensure it meets Pope Francis's aim: that reform must "con-form to the Good News which must be proclaimed joyously and courageously to all, especially to the poor, the least and the outcast".

Francis has said he also expects it to be "guided by ecclesiology and directed in bonum et in servitium, as is the service of the Bishop of Rome.

"It will only work if the men and women who work in the Curia are renewed and not simply replaced," Francis told the C9 when they began the work.

"Permanent formation is not enough; what we need also and above all is permanent conversion and purification. Without a change of mentality, efforts at practical improvement will be in vain."

Semeraro says introducing the changes will be a considered process.

To date Francis has shown a preference for gradual reform, with a kind of "breaking-in" period, he says. This approach allows for corrections as the reform is rolled out from theory to practical reality.

Source

• Vatican Radio
• The Pilot
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Communio

This would mean transferring some offices from the Vatican to local bishops or episcopal conferences "in a spirit of healthy decentralization."

The Council said they also discussed circumstances in which decisions that are currently made by Vatican congregations could be made by diocesan bishops or episcopal conferences.

Exactly which Vatican offices might be involved in such a change has not yet been announced.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke referred to the Vatican offices that might be involved as dicasteries when he was briefing reporters after the latest Council meeting.

He did not make any distinction between those dicasteries classified as "congregations" and those that are "pontifical councils."

Noting that no immediate changes are likely, Burke cited the possibility of transferring authority over deacons as an example; he said this was just one of several types of decentralization the Council of Cardinals considered in its meeting.

"In many dicasteries there are things like this that [at present] depend on Rome [to decide them] but do not have to necessarily," he said.

The next meeting of the Council of Cardinals is scheduled for September.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Culture
• Crux
• Image: abc.es

Often called the C9, the Cardinals and Pope Francis have examined several dicasteries of the curia; the protection of minors; the economy, a range of texts Francis has put forward for consideration, and Holy See lay staff and clergy selection and formation. Read more

The blistering indictment of the Vatican Curia came at the Pope's Christmas message.

The Pope's top administrators met Monday expecting the usual exchange of Christmas pleasantries.

Instead Francis' delivered a stinging critique of them and their approach to their ministries.

Careerism, scheming, greed, a lack of joy and a hart-hearted mindset had infected them with "Spiritual Alzheimers", the pontiff said.

The Holy Father listed no fewer than 15 "sicknesses and temptations" and told the gathering that some of the Curia acted as if they were "immortal, immune or even indispensable".

Vatican watchers say they have never heard such a powerful, violent speech from a pope.

"This is a speech without historic precedent," church historian Alberto Melloni, a contributor to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, told Nicole Winfield in a telephone interview.

"If the pope uses this tone, it's because he knows it's necessary."

Looking for a motive for the Pope's comments Vatican watchers suggest it is informed by the results of a secret investigation ordered by Emeritus Pope Benedict in the aftermath of the 2012 Vatileaks scandal.

The results of the report, written by three trusted cardinals, is known only to the two popes.

Among Francis' comments he asked

• How the "terrorism of gossip" can "kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood."
• How cliques can "enslave their members and become a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body" and eventually kill it off by "friendly fire."
• How some suffer from "spiritual Alzheimer's," forgetting what drew them to the priesthood in the first place.

The cardinals appeared to not be amused.

Few smiled as Francis spoke and at the end of the speech offered only 'tepid' applause.

Ending on an upbeat note, Francis wished them all a Happy Christmas! He also urged the Curia to be more joyful saying how much good a "dose of humour" could do.

After his speech Pope Francis greeted each one, but little Christmas cheer was in the room.

Sources

• Vatican News
• Reuters
• Associated Press
• Image: The Telegraph

His address to staff at the Vatican - the priests, monsignors, bishops and cardinals gathered for an end of year assessment by the pope of the year that has passed.

A few perfunctory words to round out a very busy year or a general expression for thanks for various contributions?

Not all!

A full on, Gospel based account of the traps of bureaucracy, the hypocrisy that can beset professional Catholic administrators and an implied warning that more is to come when the anticipated plans to restructure the Vatican Curia are announced in the next couple of months.

"Where did this one come from and why at Christmas?" is the understandable question on many minds, not least those whose tenure in their jobs depends on the one making the damning assessment.

But there's nothing new in what the pope said, observers of the Vatican and those who have worked closely with bishops and cardinals in Rome have told me.

"You could find any number of cardinals and bishops saying the same thing to my certain knowledge up to five decades ago," one previously highly placed and now retired lay Church official in Rome told me.

So how and why did the Argentinian Pope come to say it now to the clergy among the Vatican's staff, especially as he subsequently met with the Vatican's lay staff to thank them for all the sacrifices they make in their service of the Vatican every day?

What drove the first Pope in history to "dump" so completely, publicly and unceremoniously on his Curia and go to the heart of the Gospel to find a basis for his commentary?

Jesuits in Argentina I spoke to were not surprised at all by what the Pope had to say in Rome.

This way of behaving was vary familiar in Fr. Bergoglio's modus operandi with the Jesuits as Provincial and as Cardinal in Buenos Aires

I asked one Jesuit who knows the pope well how he interpreted this declaration in Rome.

He told me that such rhetorical flourishes from Bergoglio always come down to being directed against people, sometimes even just a single, though significant individual and what they represent of what he finds loathsome and intolerable.

My Jesuit informant told me the pope understands power and uses it to devastating effect when there is someone or a group he believes to be guilty of behaviour at complete odds with the Gospel.

To understand why the pope is such a no-nonsense individual on these matters, some appreciation of the context he comes from is needed. He began life, like many Argentinians of his age and generation, as a Peronist.

Peronism is a chaotic, at times self-contradictory, collection of populist, authoritarian and dysfunctional beliefs and political practices some of which have their foundation in the Catholic social teaching of the 1930s, particularly the corporatism of the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno of 1931.

In Argentina, Peronism created all manner of socially progressive laws but also left a legacy of corruption, political confusion, violence and the missing of economic opportunities. Politically and economically, the country has "underachieved".

Economically, the ravages of international capitalism that exploited its resources and left little for the locals have not helped Argentina. And politically, the country has led a fractured life for over fifty years with the ghost of Juan Peron authorizing no end of varieties of mutually exclusive and contradictory political movements and parties.

In that political mess, violence has been the constant companion of public life, with the most outstanding moment being the "dirty war" from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s.

It was something in which the Catholic Church was deeply involved - a significant part though not all of its leadership turned a blind eye to the killings, murders and torture carried out by the military dictatorship that operated in the name of restoring the Church and Catholic values to the center of Argentinian life.

The ultimately unproductive Peronism of his youth, the political chaos of the country that led to a military dictatorship fighting a war with Argentinians, a Church where the Nuncio was the tennis partner of the military dictator and the President of the bishops' conference was chaplain general to the armed forces and completely supportive of its "saving" role: this is the turbulence of that provided the shaping influences on a priest with a deep faith but also a keen sense of the Church's public role.

That was the world that forged Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

He developed a deep antagonism to ideologically driven solutions to anything and his recurrent return to "the people", what they think/feel/believe.

His remaining piece of Peronism is its populism, guided by rational reflection.

Bergoglio prized himself away from tribal allegiances and predictable beliefs and alliances that had been the Peronist way of operating. Then the Gospel kicked in and the parameters of his life became the Gospel and the poor. As well, a deep dose of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as reinterpreted from the 1960s on, provided him with a Christ focused, institutionally unadorned approach to faith that could not be dismayed by evidence that the church and its leadership were not all they were expected to be.

These simple resources are the foundation of his radicalism. If you put yourself in his shoes in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, it may well be that these simple elements are the basis for his survival in the tumultuous events of those many years.

What those elements now provide to the church and the world is a distinctive personality who displays many features of a genuinely post-modern personality.

He has no respect for statuses and structures unless the people holding them are delivering what they've been put in place to provide.

He never invokes tradition to justify his claims or assertions.

He seeks to engage and persuade rather than declare and direct.

He is a vividly autonomous actor operating from his own subjectivity rather a received set of institutionally generated maxims and boundaries.

Maybe that is why he captured the imagination of a postmodern world.

Michael Kelly SJ is executive director of ucanews.com

The Vatican released little information about the meeting; Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ, reminded journalists that meetings between Pope Francis and the department heads were six-monthly events.

Lombardi however confirmed the meeting took three hours and that Bishop Marcello Semerano, Secretary of the Council of Cardinals (C9) gave a presentation on the issue of Curial reform.

Lombardi told media the department heads "spoke and gave their observations" about the planned reforms and future C9 meetings will consider their comments.

When asked if there might be an announcement of some changes after the next C9 meeting, Lombardi was non-committal. "We will see at the next meeting", he told reporters.

The next scheduled C9 meeting is 9, 10, 11 December.

News of Monday's meeting has raised speculation in Catholic media about how wide-ranging Pope Francis' curial reforms might be, several commentators speculating the Holy Father might dissolve or merge certain congregations and raise the importance of others.

Rorate Caeli reports the discussion will see the four Pontifical Councils - Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, and Pastoral Care of Health Workers - merged into one body with the name "Charity and Justice", and two other Councils - the Pontifical Council for the Family, and for the Laity merging into a single body.

The blog speculates the formation of a third body to coordinate all the organs of communication of the Holy See including, Radio Vaticana, L'Osservatore Romano, Pontifical Council for Social Communications and perhaps others.

Little comment surrounds the five remaining Pontifical Councils: Promotion of the Unity of Christians, Interpretation of Legislative Texts, New Evangelisation, Inter-religious Dialogue and Culture.

There is similarly little being said about the nine Congregations of the Curia: Doctrine of the Faith, Divine Worship, Causes of Saints, Bishops, Clergy, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Eastern Churches, and Evangelization of Peoples.

Pope Francis recently appointed Cardinal Robert Sarah as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Sources

• News.va
• NCR
• Rorate Caeli
• Image: Vatican Radio