Vatican: Women to benefit as Pope Francis unveils reforms

Pope Francis delivered on the reforms promised years ago by allowing any baptized Catholic — man or woman — to lead major departments at the Vatican.

The new constitution will take effect on June 5, replacing one approved in 1988 by Pope John Paul II

Pope Francis on Saturday issued a new constitution for the Vatican's central administration, known as the Curia, stating that any baptized lay Catholics, including women, can head Vatican offices.

Until now, most Vatican departments have been headed by male clerics, usually cardinals.

The new 54-page constitution, called Praedicate Evangelium (Proclaiming the Gospel), took more than nine years to complete.

It replaces the founding constitution Pastor Bonus penned by St. John Paul II in 1988 and will take effect on June 5.

"The pope, bishops and other ordained ministers are not the only evangelizers in the Church," the preamble says, adding that lay men and women "should have roles of government and responsibility."

Another section says "any member of the faithful can head a dicastery (Curia department)" if the pope decides they are qualified and appoints them.

It makes no distinction between lay men and lay women.

The text says choices will be made based on people's professional competence, spiritual life, pastoral experience, sobriety and love for the poor, a sense of community and "ability to recognize the signs of the times."

Years in the making

Francis was elected pope in 2013 in large part on his promise to reform the bulky and inefficient Vatican bureaucracy, which acts as the organ of central governance for the 1.3-billion strong Catholic Church.

He named a Cabinet of cardinal advisers who have met periodically since his election to help him draft the changes.

Much of the reform work has been rolled out piecemeal over the years, with offices consolidated and financial reforms issued.

But the publication of the new document, for now only in Italian, finalizes the process.

The document was released Saturday, the ninth anniversary of Francis' installation as pope.

The Catholic Church has struggled to deal with several scandals of alleged sexual abuse by clergy.

mm/dj(AP, Reuters)

Pope in 'tectonic' shake-up of Vatican

bureaucracy

Issued on: 19/03/2022


Francis, 85, put together a group of cardinals to advise him on how to enact reforms 

Tiziana FABI AFP

Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis on Saturday followed through on a promise made ahead of his 2013 election and published a much-anticipated shake-up of the Vatican's powerful governing body.

The new constitution, which comes into effect on June 5, restructures parts of the unruly Roman Curia, and makes increasing the world's 1.2 billion Catholics the church's number one priority.

Among the most significant changes are the possibility for lay and female Catholics to head up Vatican departments, and the incorporation of the pope's sex abuse advisory commission into the Curia.

"Pope Francis has been working on a new organizational structure for the Vatican for nine years. It's a major aspect of his legacy," Joshua McElwee from the National Catholic Reporter said on Twitter.


'Tectonic shift'

Cardinals gathered for the conclave to elect a new pope in 2013 were divided between those who believed there were deep-rooted problems in the Curia and those who wanted to preserve the status quo.

Ex-pope Benedict XVI, who had just resigned, was reported to have tried and failed to clean up a body some even blamed for preventing the church from properly tackling the child sex abuse scandal.

Francis, 85, put together a group of cardinals to advise him over the years on how to reform the Curia, and has already enacted many changes as he moves to modernise the centuries-old institution.

The 54-page text entitled "Proclaiming the Gospel", which replaces a constitution drawn up by pope John Paul II in 1988, creates a new department for evangelisation, to be headed up by Francis himself.

Making himself "Chief Evangelizer" encapsulates a "tectonic shift to a more pastoral, missionary church," David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, said on Twitter.

In that vein, Francis says every baptised Christian is a missionary.

"One cannot fail to take this into account in the updating of the Curia, whose reform must provide for involvement of laymen and women, even in roles of government and responsibility," he said.
'Significant'

The constitution, released on the ninth anniversary of the inauguration of Francis' papacy, makes the pope's charity czar, currently Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, head of a department in its own right.

It also brings the Vatican's Commission for the Protection of Minors -- a papal advisory body -- into the office which oversees the canonical investigations of clerical sex abuse cases.

In doing so, the pope is "effectively establishing the Vatican's first safeguarding office", the Tablet's journalist Christopher Lamb said.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who heads the Commission, said it was a "significant move forward", which would give institutional weight to the fight against a scourge which has plagued the church globally.

But Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of clerical abuse who served on the commission before resigning in outrage in 2017 over the church's handling of the crisis, slammed it instead as a clear step back.

"The Commission has now officially lost even a semblance of independence," she said on Twitter.

© 2022 AFP