Pope Francis’ reforms to church governance are unlike any since Vatican II
From www.ncronline.org
2022-07-15 08:20:22
Excerpt:
Pope Francis speaks during the traditional greetings to the Roman Curia in the Sala Clementina (Clementine Hall) of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on Dec. 22, 2016. (AP/Gregorio Borgia, Pool)
After the reforms laid out by Pope Francis are fully implemented, the Vatican Curia will never be the same. His recent predecessors talked about reforming the Curia, but compared with Francis they were simply rearranging deck chairs.
Francis’ changes, most laid out in his March 19 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium (“Preach the Gospel”), are the most dramatic made to church governance since Pope Paul VI, who, in 1965, established the synod of bishops to advise the pope. This innovation never lived up to its potential because synodal bishops were forced to defer to curial cardinals. Only under Francis have the synodal fathers been freed to speak boldly.