Pope lays out guiding principles of Roman Curia reform
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis invited the Roman Curia
to embrace the process of reform on Thursday, telling them Christmas is “the
feast of the loving humility of God, of the God who upsets our logical
expectations, the established order”.
His words came in his annual Christmas greetings to the
Roman Curia.
“At Christmas,” Pope Francis said, “we are called to say
‘yes’ with our faith, not to the Master of the universe, and not even the most
noble ideas, but precisely to this God who is the humble lover.”
In his address to the Roman Curia, the Holy Father returned,
as during the previous two year’s addresses, to the theme of Curial reform,
laying out the framework, guiding principles, and what is yet to come.
He said, “Since the Curia is not an immobile bureaucratic
apparatus, reform is first and foremost a sign of life, of a Church that
advances on her pilgrim way, of a Church that is living and for this reason semper
reformanda, in need of reform because she is alive.”
The Pope said 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” and that it “must be guided by
ecclesiology and directed in bonum et in servitium, as is the
service of the Bishop of Rome”.
He said the aim of reform is not aesthetic, like a facelift,
for “it isn’t wrinkles we need to worry about in the Church, but blemishes!”
Pope Francis said curial reform will only work if the men
and women who work in the Curia are renewed and not simply replaced.
“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.”
He said resistance to the process of reform is healthy,
provided it does not come from ill intentions.
Describing three types of resistance, the Pope said open
resistance is “born of goodwill and sincere dialogue” and hidden resistance
comes from “hardened hearts content with the empty rhetoric of a complacent
spiritual reform”, while malicious resistance springs up “in misguided minds
and comes to the fore when the devil inspires ill intentions… [which] hides
behind words of self-justification and often accusation”.
Pope Francis then laid out the guiding principles of the
reform, which are:
- Individual responsibility (personal conversion)
- Pastoral concern (pastoral conversion)
- Missionary spirit (Christocentrism)
- Clear organization
- Improved functioning
- Modernization (updating)
- Sobriety
- Subsidiarity
- Synodality
- Catholicity
- Professionalism
- Gradualism (discernment)
- Pastoral concern (pastoral conversion)
- Missionary spirit (Christocentrism)
- Clear organization
- Improved functioning
- Modernization (updating)
- Sobriety
- Subsidiarity
- Synodality
- Catholicity
- Professionalism
- Gradualism (discernment)
In conclusion, the Holy Father reiterated that Christmas is
the feast of God’s loving humility and repeated a prayer of Fr. Matta el
Meskin, addressing the Lord Jesus born in Bethlehem.
“Grant us to become small like you, so that we can draw near
to you and receive from you abundant humility and meekness. Do not deprive us
of your revelation, the epiphany of your infancy in our hearts, so that with it
we can heal all our pride and all our arrogance. We greatly need… for you to reveal
in us your simplicity, by drawing us, and indeed the Church and the whole
world, to yourself.”
Please find below the official English translation of
Pope Francis’ address:
Greetings of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Roman Curia
Christmas 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I would like to begin this meeting of ours by offering
cordial good wishes to all of you, superiors and officials, papal
representatives and staff of the Nunciatures worldwide, all those working in
the Roman Curia and to your families. Best wishes for a holy and serene
Christmas and a happy New Year 2017!
Saint Augustine, contemplating the face of the Baby Jesus,
exclaimed: “immense in the form of God, tiny in the form of a slave”. To
describe the mystery of the Incarnation, Saint Macarius, the fourth-century
monk and disciple of Saint Anthony Abbot, used the Greek verb “smikryno”,
to become small, to reduce to the bare minimum. He says: “Listen
attentively: the infinite, unapproachable and uncreated God, in his immense and
ineffable goodness has taken a body, and, I dare say, infinitely diminished his
glory”.
Christmas is thus the feast of the loving humility of God,
of the God who upsets our logical expectations, the established order, the
order of the dialectician and the mathematician. In this upset lies all
the richness of God’s own thinking, which overturns our limited human ways of
thinking (cf. Is 55: 8-9). As Romano Guardini said: “What an overturning
of all our familiar values – not only human values but also divine
values! Truly this God upsets everything that we claim to build up on our
own”. At Christmas, we are called to say “yes” with our faith, not to the
Master of the universe, and not even to the most noble of ideas, but precisely
to this God who is the humble lover.
Blessed Paul VI, on Christmas of 1971, said: “God could have
come wrapped in glory, splendour, light and power, to instill fear, to make us
rub our eyes in amazement. But instead he came as the smallest, the
frailest and weakest of beings. Why? So that no one would be
ashamed to approach him, so that no one would be afraid, so that all would be
close to him and draw near him, so that there would be no distance between us
and him. God made the effort to plunge, to dive deep within us, so that
each of us, each of you, could speak intimately with him, trust him, draw near
him and realize that he thinks of you and loves you… He loves you! Think
about what this means! If you understand this, if you remember what I am
saying, you will have understood the whole of Christianity”.
God chose to be born a tiny child because he wanted to be
loved. Here we see, as it were, how the logic of Christmas is the
overturning of worldly logic, of the mentality of power and might, the thinking
of the Pharisees and those who see things only in terms of causality or
determinism.
In this gentle yet overpowering light of the divine
countenance of the Christ Child, I have chosen as the theme of this, our yearly
meeting, the reform of the Roman Curia. It seemed to me right and fitting
to share with you the framework of the reform, to point out its guiding
principles, the steps taken so far, but above all the logic behind every step
already taken and what is yet to come.
Here I spontaneously think of the ancient adage that
describes the process of the Spiritual Exercises in the Ignatian method: deformata
reformare, reformata conformare, conformata confirmare et confirmata
transformare.
There can be no doubt that, for the Curia, the word reform
is to be understood in two ways. First of all, it has to make the Curia
con-form “to the Good News which must be proclaimed joyously and courageously
to all, especially to the poor, the least and the outcast”. To make it
con-form “to the signs of our time and to all its human achievements”, so as
“better to meet the demands of the men and women whom we are called to
serve”. At the same time, this means con-forming the Curia ever more
fully to its purpose, which is that of cooperating in the ministry of the
Successor of Peter (cum ipso consociatam operam prosequuntur, as the Motu
Proprio Humanam Progressionem puts it), and supporting the Roman
Pontiff in the exercise of his singular, ordinary, full, supreme, immediate and
universal power.
Consequently, the reform of the Roman Curia must be guided
by ecclesiology and directed in bonum et in servitium, as is the service of the
Bishop of Rome. This finds eloquent expression in the words of Pope Saint
Gregory the Great, quoted in the third chapter of the Constitution Pastor
Aeternus of the First Vatican Council: “My honour is that of the
universal Church. My honour is the solid strength of my brothers. I
feel truly honoured when none of them is denied his due honour”.
Since the Curia is not an immobile bureaucratic apparatus,
reform is first and foremost a sign of life, of a Church that advances on her
pilgrim way, of a Church that is living and for this reason semper
reformanda, in need of reform because she is alive.
Here it must clearly be said that reform is not an end unto
itself, but rather a process of growth and above all of conversion.
Consequently, the aim of reform is not aesthetic, an effort
to improve the looks of the Curia, nor can it be understood as a sort of
facelift, using make-up and cosmetics to embellish its aging body, nor even as
an operation of plastic surgery to take away its wrinkles.
Dear brothers and sisters, it isn’t wrinkles we need to
worry about in the Church, but blemishes!
Seen in this light, we need to realize that the reform will
be effective only if it is carried out with men and women who are renewed and
not simply new. We cannot be content simply with changing personnel, but
need to encourage spiritual, human and professional renewal among the members
of the Curia. The reform of the Curia is in no way implemented with a
change of persons – something that certainly is happening and will continue to
happen – but with a conversion in persons. 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.
That is why, in our last two meetings at Christmas, I
discussed certain “diseases”, drawing on the teaching of the Desert Fathers
(2014), and compiled, on the basis of the word “mercy”, a catalogue of virtues
necessary for curial officials and all those who wish their consecration or
service to the Church to become more fruitful (2015). The underlying
reason is that, as in the case of the Church overall, the semper reformanda
must also become, in the case of the Curia, a permanent personal and structural
process of conversion.
It was necessary to speak of disease and cures because every
surgical operation, if it is to be successful, must be preceded by detailed
diagnosis and careful analysis, and needs to be accompanied and followed up by
precise prescriptions.
In this process, it is normal, and indeed healthy, to
encounter difficulties, which in the case of the reform, might present
themselves as different types of resistance. There can be cases of
open resistance, often born of goodwill and sincere dialogue, and cases of
hidden resistance, born of fearful or hardened hearts content with the empty
rhetoric of a complacent spiritual reform, on the part of those who say they are
ready for change, but want everything to remain as it is. There are also
cases of malicious resistance, which spring up in misguided minds and come to
the fore when the devil inspires ill intentions (often cloaked in sheep’s
clothing). This last kind of resistance hides behind words of
self-justification and often accusation; it takes refuge in traditions,
appearances, formalities, in the familiar, or else in a desire to make
everything personal, failing to distinguish between the act, the actor, and the
action.
The absence of reaction is a sign of death!
Consequently, the good cases of resistance – and even those not quite so good –
are necessary and merit being listened to, welcomed and their expression
encouraged.
All this is to say that the reform of the Curia is a
delicate process that has to take place in fidelity to essentials, with
constant discernment, evangelical courage and ecclesial wisdom, careful
listening, persevering action, positive silence and firm decisions. It
requires much prayer, profound humility, farsightedness, concrete steps forward
and – whenever necessary – even with steps backward, with determination,
vitality, responsible exercise of power, unconditioned obedience, but above all
by abandonment to the sure guidance of the Holy Spirit and trust in his
necessary support.
SOME GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORM
These are principally twelve: individualism; pastoral
concern; missionary spirit; clear organization; improved functioning;
modernization; sobriety; subsidiarity; synodality; catholicity; professionalism
and gradualism.
1.
Individual responsibility (personal conversion)
Once again I reaffirm the importance of individual
conversion, without which all structural change would prove useless. The
true soul of the reform are the men and women who are part of it and make it
possible. Indeed, personal conversion supports and reinforces communal
conversion.
There is a powerful interplay between personal and communal
attitudes. A single person can bring great good to the entire body, but
also bring great harm and lead to sickness. A healthy body is one that
can recover, accept, reinforce, care for and sanctify its members.
2. Pastoral
concern (pastoral conversion)
Mindful of the figure of the shepherd (cf. Ez 34:16; Jn
10:1-21) and recognizing that the Curia is a community of service, “it is good
for us too, called to be pastors in the Church, to let the face of God the Good
Shepherd enlighten us, purify us and transform us, fully renewed, to our
mission. That even in our workplaces we may feel, cultivate and practise
a sound pastoral sense, especially towards the people whom we meet each
day. May no one feel overlooked or mistreated, but may everyone
experience, here first of all, the care and concern of the Good Shepherd”.
The efforts of all who work in the Curia must be inspired by
pastoral concern and a spirituality of service and communion, for this is the
antidote to all the venoms of vain ambition and illusory rivalry. Paul VI
cautioned that “the Roman Curia should not be a bureaucracy, as some wrongly
judge it, pretentious and apathetic, merely legalistic and ritualistic, a
training ground of concealed ambitions and veiled antagonisms, as others would
have it. Rather, it should be a true community of faith and charity, of
prayer and of activity, of brothers and sons of the Pope, who carry out their
duties respecting one another’s competence and with a sense of collaboration,
in order to serve him as he serves his brothers and sons of the universal
Church and of the entire world”.
3.
Missionary spirit (Christocentrism)
As the Council taught, it is the chief aim of all forms of
service in the Church to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth.
For “there are Church structures which can hamper efforts at evangelization,
yet even good structures are only helpful when there is a life constantly
driving, sustaining and assessing them. Without new life and an authentic
evangelical spirit, without the Church’s fidelity to her own calling, any new
structure will soon prove ineffective.”
4. Clear
organization
On the basis of the principle that all Dicasteries are
juridically equal, a clearer organization of the offices of the Roman Curia was
needed, in order to bring out the fact that each Dicastery has its own areas of
competence. These areas of competence must be respected, but they must
also be distributed in a reasonable, efficient and productive way. No
Dicastery can therefore appropriate the competence of another Dicastery, in
accordance with what is laid down by law. On the other hand, all
Dicasteries report directly to the Pope.
5. Improved
functioning
The eventual merging of two or more Dicasteries competent in
similar or closely connected matters to create a single Dicastery serves on the
one hand to give the latter greater importance (even externally). On the
other hand, the closeness and interaction of individual bodies within a single
Dicastery contributes to improved functioning (as shown by the two recently
created Dicasteries).
Improved functioning also demands an ongoing review of
roles, the relevance of areas of competence, and the responsibilities of the
personnel, and consequently of the process of reassignment, hiring,
interruption of work and also promotions.
6.
Modernization (updating)
This involves an ability to interpret and attend to “the
signs of the times.” In this sense, “We are concerned to make provisions
that the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia be suited to the circumstances of our
time and adapted to the needs of the universal Church”. Such was the
request of the Second Vatican Council: “the departments of the Roman Curia
should be reorganized in a manner more appropriate to the needs of our time and
of different regions and rites, especially in regard to their number, their
titles, their competence, their procedures and how they coordinate their
activities”.
7. Sobriety
Here what is called for is a simplification and streamlining
of the Curia. This involves the combination or merging of Dicasteries
based on their areas of competence; simplification within individual
Dicasteries; the eventual suppression of offices no longer responding to
contingent needs; the integration into Dicasteries or the reduction of Commissions,
Academies, Committees, etc., all in view of the essential sobriety needed for a
proper and authentic witness.
8.
Subsidiarity
This involves the reordering of areas of competence specific
to the various Dicasteries, transferring them if necessary from one Dicastery
to another, in order to achieve autonomy, coordination and subsidiarity in
areas of competence and effective interaction in service.
Here too, respect must be shown for the principles of
subsidiarity and clear organization with regard to relations with the
Secretariat of State and, within the latter, among its various areas of
competence, so that carrying out its proper duties it will be of direct and
immediate assistance to the Pope. This will also improve coordination between
the various sectors of the Dicasteries and the Offices of the Curia
themselves. The Secretariat of State will be able to carry out its
important function precisely in achieving unity, interdependence and
coordination between its sections and different sectors.
9.
Synodality
The work of the Curia must be synodal, with regular meetings
of Heads of the Dicasteries, presided over by the Roman Pontiff; regularly
scheduled Audiences of Heads of the Dicasteries with the Pope, and the
customary interdicasterial meetings. The reduced number of Dicasteries
will allow for more frequent and systematic meetings of individual Prefects
with the Pope and productive meetings of Heads of Dicasteries, since this
cannot be the case when groups are too large.
Synodality must also be evident in the work of each
Dicastery, with particular attention to the Congress and at least a greater
frequency of the Ordinary Sessions. Each Dicastery must avoid the
fragmentation caused by factors such as the multiplication of specialized
sectors, which can tend to become self-absorbed. Their coordination must
be the task of the Secretary, or the Undersecretary.
10. Catholicity
Among the Officials, in addition to priests and consecrated
persons, the catholicity of the Church must be reflected in the hiring of
personnel from throughout the world, of permanent deacons and lay faithful
carefully selected on the basis of their unexceptionable spiritual and moral
life and their professional competence. It is fitting to provide for the
hiring of greater numbers of the lay faithful, especially in those Dicasteries
where they can be more competent than clerics or consecrated persons. Also
of great importance is an enhanced role for women and lay people in the life of
the Church and their integration into roles of leadership in the Dicasteries,
with particular attention to multiculturalism.
11. Professionalism
Every Dicastery must adopt a policy of continuing formation
for its personnel, to avoid their falling into a rut or becoming stuck in a
bureaucratic routine.
Likewise essential is the definitive abolition of the
practice of promoveatur ut amoveatur.
12. Gradualism (discernment)
Gradualism has to do with the necessary discernment entailed
by historical processes, the passage of time and stages of development,
assessment, correction, experimentation, and approvals ad experimentum.
In these cases, it is not a matter of indecision, but of the flexibility needed
to be able to achieve a true reform.
STEPS ALREADY TAKEN
I will now mention briefly and concisely some steps already
taken to put into practice these guiding principles and the recommendations
made by the Cardinals in the plenary meetings before the Conclave, by the
COSEA, by the Council of Cardinals (C9), and by the Heads of the Dicasteries
and other experts and individuals:
-
On 13 April 2013 it was announced that the Council of Cardinals (Consilium
Cardinalium Summo Pontifici) – the C8 and, after 1 July 2014, the C9 – was
created, primarily to counsel the Pope on the governance of the universal
Church and on other related topics, also with the specific task of proposing
the revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.
-
With the Chirograph of 24 June 2013, the Pontifical Commission for Reference on
the Institute for Works of Religion was established, in order to study the
legal status of the IOR and to allow for its greater ”harmonization” with “the
universal mission of the Apostolic See”. This was “to ensure that
economic and financial activities be permeated by Gospel principles” and to
achieve a complete and acknowledged transparency in its operation.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 11 July 2013, provisions were made to define the
jurisdiction of the judicial authorities of Vatican City State in criminal
matters.
-
With the Chirograph of 18 July 2013, the COSEA (Pontifical Commission for
Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure) was
instituted and given the task of research, analysis and the gathering of
information, in cooperation with the Council of Cardinals for the study of the
organizational and economic problems of the Holy See.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 8 August 2013, the Holy See’s Financial Security
Committee was established for the prevention and countering of money
laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. This was to bring the IOR and the entire Vatican economic
system to the regular adoption of, and fully committed and diligent compliance
with, all international legal norms on financial transparency.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 15 November 2013, the Financial Intelligence Authority
(AIF), established by Benedict XVI with his Motu Proprio of 30 December 2010
for the prevention and countering of illegal activities in the area of monetary
and financial dealings, was consolidated.
-
With the Motu Proprio 24 February 2014 (Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens), the
Secretariat for the Economy and the Council for the Economy were established to
replace the Council of 15 Cardinals, with the task of harmonizing the policies
of control in regard to the economic management of the Holy See and the Vatican
City.
-
With the same Motu Proprio of 24 February 2014, the Office of General Auditor
(URG) was established as a new agency of the Holy See, charged with auditing
the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the institutions connected with to the Holy
See or associated with it, and the administrations of the Governatorate of
Vatican City.
-
With the Chirograph of 22 March 2014, the Pontifical Commission for the
Protection of Minors was established, in order “to promote the protection of
the dignity of minors and vulnerable adults, using the forms and methods,
consonant with the nature of the Church, which they consider most appropriate”.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 8 July 2014, the Ordinary Section of the Administration
of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See was transferred to the Secretariat for
the Economy.
-
On 22 February 2015, the Statutes of the new economic agencies were approved.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 27 June 2015, the Secretariat for Communication was
established and charged “to respond to the current context of communication,
characterized by the presence and evolution of digital media, and by factors of
convergence and interactivity”. The Secreariat was also charged with overall
restructuring, through a process of reorganization and merging, of “all the
realities which in various ways up to the present have dealt with
communications”, so as to “respond ever better to the needs of the mission of
the Church”
-
On 6 September 2016, the Statutes of the Secretariat for Communication were
promulgated; they took effect last October.
With the two Motu Proprios of 15 August 2015, provisions were made for the
reform of the canonical process in cases of declaration of marital nullity:
Mitis et Misericors Iesus for the Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches, and
Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus for the Code of Canon Law.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 4 June 2016 (Come una madre amorevole), an effort was
made to prevent negligence on the part of bishops in the exercise of their
office, especially with regard to cases of the sexual abuse of minors and
vulnerable adults.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 15 August 2016 (Sedula Mater), the Dicastery for
Laity, the Family and Life was established, in the light of the general
pastoral purpose of the Petrine ministry: “I hasten to arrange all things
necessary in order that the richness of Christ Jesus may be poured forth
appropriately and profusely among the faithful”.
-
With the Motu Proprio of 17 August 2016 (Humanum progressionem), the Dicastery
for Promoting Integral Human Development was established, so that development
can take place “by attending to the inestimable goods of justice, peace and the
care of creation”. Beginning in January 2017, four Pontifical
Councils - Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, the Pastoral Care of Migrants and
Itinerant People, and Healthcare Workers – will be merged into this
Dicastery. For the time being, I will directly head the section for the
pastoral care of migrants in the new Dicastery.
-
On 18 October 2016, the Statutes of the Pontifical Academy for Life were
approved.
Our meeting today began by speaking of the meaning of
Christmas as the overturning of our human criteria, in order to emphasize that
the heart and centre of the reform is Christ (Christocentrism).
I would like to conclude simply with a word and a
prayer. The word is to reiterate that Christmas is the feast of God’s
loving humility. The prayer is the Christmas message of Father Matta el
Meskin, a monk of our time, who, addressing the Lord Jesus born in Bethlehem,
said: “If for us the experience of (your) infancy is so difficult, it is not so
for you, O Son of God. If we stumble along the way that leads to
communion with you because of your smallness, you are capable of removing all
the obstacles that prevent us from doing this. We know that you will not
be at peace until you find us in your likeness and with this (same)
smallness. Allow us today, O Son of God, to draw dear to your
heart. Grant that we may not consider ourselves great in our experiences.
Grant us instead to become small like you, so that we can draw near to you and
receive from you abundant humility and meekness. Do not deprive us of
your revelation, the epiphany of your infancy in our hearts, so that with it we
can heal all our pride and all our arrogance. We greatly need… for you to
reveal in us your simplicity, by drawing us, and indeed the Church and the
whole world, to yourself. Our world is weary and exhausted, because
everyone is vying to see who is the greatest. There is a ruthless
competition between governments, churches, peoples, within families, from one
parish to another: Who of us is the greatest? The world is festering with
painful wounds because of this great illness: Who is the greatest? But
today we have found in you, O Son of God, our one medicine. We, and the
whole world, will not find salvation or peace unless we go back to encounter
you anew in the manger of Bethlehem. Amen.
Thank you, and I wish you a Holy Christmas and a Blessed New
Year 2017!
(Devin Sean Watkins)
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