Considering the Church in India, one wonders if we are ready to accept the innovative Church, when we are still struggling to convince the faithful to accept girls on the altar, to receive communion from the women Eucharistic ministers, to permit women to have their feet washed on Maundy Thursdays, etc.,
Michael Anand OFM
‘Roma locuta, causa finita est.” This age old Latin phrase powerfully conveys the notion that the jurisdiction of the Pope and the Roman Curia who have the ultimate authority over the universal Catholic Church in matters regarding spirituality and Ecclesiastical disciplines. The Code of Canon Law states that the Pope “has supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he can always freely exercise his power” (Can. 331). However, the Pope, the supreme authority of the Church, “usually conducts the business of the universal Church through the Roman Curia, which acts in his name and with his authority for the good and for the service of the Churches” (Can. 360). The word Curia means the place of various offices of group of persons who compose the offices. The Roman Curia is the complex of department and institutes which assist the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme pastoral function and the Pope uses this office to implement his judicial, legislative, and executive office as head of the Church. Although it exists and acts only insofar as he wishes it to, its specific powers are set out in the Code of Canon Law and special laws enacted and approved by the Roman Pontiff. By force of tradition and practice, moreover, it has assumed a powerful position in day-to-day Church operations.
The Roman Curia has been in existence right from the first century in different forms. On June 28, 1988, Pope John Paul II promulgated the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus, to take effect on March 1, 1989, modifying the organization and competencies of the Roman Curia which had been regulated by the norms of the Aug. 15, 1967, apostolic constitution Regimini ecclesiae universae issued by Pope Paul VI. Though this apostolic constitution of Pope John Paul II is much appreciated, the new millennium and the changing society required an updated special law to govern the Roman Curia. It’s because the Catholic Church believes in Ecclesia semper reformanda – a continually reformed Church.
Francis was elected Pope in 2013 with a mandate to reform the huge and inefficient Vatican bureaucracy. As a first step to revitalize the top most organization of the Catholic Church, soon after taking charge as the head of the Church, Pope Francis appointed a cabinet of cardinal advisors who have met regularly since then to draft a new law to regulate the Roman Curia. Finally, the long awaited document, apostolic constitution, Praedicate evangelium (Preach the Gospel), that implements the reform of the organization and structure of the Roman Curia was released on March 19, 2022 on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the ninth anniversary of the Pontificate of Pope Francis. This new constitution regulating the Roman Curia will come into full effect from the 5th of this month of June, on the Solemnity of Pentecost. Some of the significant changes that are brought forth in this new constitution express the ardent desire of Pope Francis to take the Church forward in the modern times.
From ‘Congregations’ to ‘Dicasteries’
So far the Roman Curia consisted of the Secretariat of State, Papal Secretariat, and the Councils, the Congregations, the Tribunals and other institutes. Under the new constitution, all the Vatican’s main departments are now known as “dicasteries.” The powerful Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for example, will now be called the “Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”Along with removing the title “congregation” from Vatican departments, the new constitution renames pontifical councils as “Dicasteries.” The constitution says: “The Roman Curia is composed of the Secretariat of State, the Dicasteries and other bodies, all juridically equal to each other.”
With a new total of 16 departments, in addition to the various secretariats, tribunals, offices, and commissions, the number of Vatican offices has been reduced. The 16 Dicasteries of the Curia as per the new constitution are: Dicastery for Evangelization; Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Dicastery for the Service of Charity; Dicastery for the Eastern Churches; Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; Dicastery for Bishops; Dicastery for the Clergy; Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life; Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue; Dicastery for Culture and Education; Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Dicastery for Legislative Texts; Dicastery for Communication.
Goodbye, ‘Red Pope’
Founded in 1622, the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, later called the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (the Congregation that so far addressed the issues pertinent to mission countries such as India), had substantial autonomy, also from a financial point of view. So much so that its prefect was nicknamed ‘the Red Pope’. But in Praedicate Evangelium ‘the Red Pope’ has disappeared. Article 55 of the constitution makes this significant change by merging the Pontifical Council for promoting the New Evangelization and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples into one Dicastery as ‘the Dicastery for Evangelization’, directly chaired by the Roman Pontiff. This is a notable change because it is the first time ever the Pope will directly oversee a Curial department. Placing Evangelization at the centre, this Dicastery for Evangelization is listed first among the Dicasteries in the document, indicating its centrality in the new structure of the Roman Curia. The Dicastery for Evangelization will have two sections, one for “fundamental questions of evangelization in the world” and another “for the first evangelization and the new particular Churches in the territories of its competence”.
Lay Leaders to Vatican Departments
“It is no longer automatic that the head of a Vatican dicastery is a cardinal,” said Bishop Marco Mellino, secretary of the Council of Cardinals that has advised Pope Francis in the drafting of the new constitution of the Roman curia, Praedicate Evangelium, addressing the media, on the 21st of March, after the release of the new document. This is seen as the biggest change in the new documents. The only exceptions are the Vatican’s tribunals and the Council for the Economy. The latter because in the event of a sede vacante at the death or resignation of a pope, the head of this office will be one of three who assist the camarlengo, who leads the Vatican in the absence of a pope. Therefore, the constitution states that “the pope, the bishops, and other ordained ministers are not the only evangelizers in the Church,” and because of this, the curial reform “must provide for the involvement of lay people, even in roles of government and responsibility.” Stressing on the role of laity in the Church, the document further states that the contribution of lay people is “essential”, and “any member of the faithful can head a department or organism”, if the Pope decides that they are qualified and appoints them. Explaining the significance of Pope Francis’s reform of the curia, which allows the laity to lead Vatican departments, Jesuit canonist, and emeritus professor of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Gianfranco Ghirlanda stressed that the “power of governance in the Church does not come from the sacrament of Orders” that happens at priestly ordination, but from “canonical mission,” meaning, the faculty granted by the Roman pontiff on any given issue.
End to Careerism
Another daring move by the Pope through Praedicate Evangelium is to shun careerism in the Roman Curia by limiting the term of office to five years. The new constitution establishes, “As a rule, after five years, clerical Officials and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life who have served in curial institutions and offices return to pastoral care in their diocese/parish, or in the Institutes or Societies to which they belong.” It also makes further provision stating that, “Should the Superiors of the Roman Curia deem it opportune, the service may be extended for another period of five years.” This bold law by Pope Francis is seen as a blow to careerism and paves way for the fresh blood and new thinking in the top most institution of the Catholic Church.
Synodal Church
In the year 2021, Pope Francis launched the process the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishop to be held in 2023 with the theme, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission”. Maintaining the same thought process, Praedicate Evangelium envisions a Curia close and connected to local bishops by maintaining an “organic relationship” with national and regional bishops’ conferences, stating that, “The Roman Curia does not place itself between the Pope and the Bishops, rather it places itself at the service of both in the manner that is proper to the nature of each.” The importance of this aspect is seen as the document highlights the role of local bishops’ conferences, mentioning them 52 times. By contrast, the 1988 document Pastor bonus, the previous Vatican constitution, mentioned them just twice. Hence, the National Bishops’ Conferences will be empowered under the new reform, in the sense that the Roman Curia will undertake greater consultation with them before making major decisions that affect them. The method for accomplishing this vision, for Pope Francis, is “synodality,” allowing the curia, and the Church as a whole, to become one of mutual listening and learning from each other.
Way Forward
The Document titled ‘Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia and its Service to the Church in the World’ is rich in content. It introduces new thinking, paving way for innovations and reformations in the Catholic Church. At the same time, Praedicate Evangelium poses lots of challenges to the Universal as well as local churches around the world. Considering the Church in India, for instance, one wonders if we are ready to accept the innovative Church, when we are still struggling to convince the faithful to accept girls on the altar, to receive communion from the women Eucharistic ministers, to permit women to have their feet washed on Maundy Thursdays, etc., The notion of clericalism and patriarchy are strongly inbuilt in the minds of the people that there is hardly any place for the existence of subsidiarity at the parish and the diocesan levels.
The growth and development of any organism involves changes, challenges and some internal churnings and it would necessarily involve a tension between giving up something old and outdated and taking up something new and innovative. Whether the reformation is possible or impossible depends not solely on the authorities and the laws that are enacted and implemented but on the convictions and openness of every individual member. As Pope Francis has often repeated, the document insists that true reform is based above all on an “internal reform,” meaning personal conversion. Hence, at this stage it is too early to presume, if the reformations brought forth by Praedicate Evangelium are possible or impossible, but what can be predicted in confidence is that in the near future reformation is on the cards and the Roman Curia will never be the same as before.
Michael Anand OFM is a practising civil lawyer and a qualified canon lawyer.
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