So far, this was reserved for the clergy. The curia reform will come into effect on Pentecost (June 5), the Vatican announced on Saturday. Vatican City. This means that the current curia constitution “Pastor Bonus” (The Good Shepherd) from 1988 is completely repealed. The current text of 250 articles had been planned for nine years and had been specifically revised since mid-April 2019. In this way, all organs of the curia are to be geared even more towards the proclamation of the gospel. Francis had already expressed this concern in his programmatic letter “Evangelium gaudium” from 2013.
The reform will reduce the number of dicasteries (Vatilan departments such as the Secretariat of State, the Congregations, Courts and Councils) by merging those that had very similar or complementary aims. This is intended to eliminate duplication and avoid overlapping competences. The aim is to make the work more efficient, according to the “Principles and Criteria for Service at the Roman Curia”.
“The Roman Curia is at the service of the Pope, who, as the Successor of Peter, is the perennial and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both the bishops and the body of the faithful,” the preamble says. The service requires, among other things, “personal integrity and professionalism”: “Those who serve in the Curia are chosen from among bishops, priests, deacons, members of institutes of consecrated life and of societies of apostolic life, as well as lay people who distinguished by their spiritual life, their good pastoral experience, their sobriety in life and their love for the poor, their spirit of communion and service, their competence in the matters entrusted to them and their ability to discern the signs of the times”. , it was said.
For this reason, it is necessary to devote great attention to the selection and training of staff, as well as to the organization of work and the personal and professional development of each individual. The document “Praedicate Gospel” was drafted by a council of cardinals and revised in legal and canonical terms.
A press conference on his presentation is planned for Monday at the Vatican. The reform will be presented by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Marco Mellino, secretary of the Council of Cardinals, and Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, professor emeritus at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Vatican announced.
Source: Nachrichten
