![]() ![]() “The moral and spiritual trend in the world is toward more liberalism-more permissiveness,” he wrote during the papacy of John Paul ii. Armstrong predicted that the Vatican might issue a more flexible moral code. The Catholic Church was built by merging pagan practices with Christian doctrine. But the sixth-century Pope Gregory the Great wrote a letter advising Augustine of Canterbury to compromise with pagan beliefs to bring Anglo-Saxon tribes into the Catholic Church. For the past 500 years, the Vatican has been mostly run by bureaucrats intent on defending Catholic dogma from Protestantism and secularism at all costs. Yet Francis may be more restorationist than the restorationists. In comments published on June 14, Francis told a gathering of Jesuit editors that “Restorationism has come to gag the ,” before adding that he knew priests for whom the 16th century Council of Trent was more memorable than the Second Vatican Council. Some Catholics fear prioritizing evangelization above doctrine will liberalize the church, but Francis condemns their rigidity. ![]() The Dicastery for Evangelization supersedes all other departments, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for defending doctrine. This dicastery merges the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which coordinated Catholic missionary activities, with the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization, which is tasked with reversing the secularization of Western countries. ![]() It also gives top billing to a new Dicastery for Evangelization. The pope’s much-touted decision to let lay Catholics lead curial departments is meant to emphasize the fact that the Roman Curia does not wield ecclesiastical authority.Īfter emphasizing that the pope is the head of the church, Praedicate Evangelium establishes a powerful secretary of state to oversee the temporal management of Vatican City. The curial offices do not lead the church and only exist to assist both the pope and these bishops with certain tasks. Praedicate Evangelium reestablishes the fact that each diocese is led by a bishop who reports directly to the pope. In the centuries since Pope Paul iii established the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, an idea has cropped up that the pope is the head of a curia that leads the church. ![]() … The Roman Curia is not set between the pope and the bishops, but is at the service of both ….” Regarding the curia, the document explains: “The Roman Curia is at the service of the pope, who, as the successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful. With this mission statement established, the rest of the document is a blueprint of the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church. This mandate constitutes ‘the primary service that the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity in the modern world.’ To this end, she has been called to proclaim the gospel of the Son of God, Christ the Lord, that thereby awaken in all peoples the hearing of the faith.” The preamble of the constitution says: “ is the task that the Lord Jesus entrusted His disciples. The most significant reforms restructure all Curia activities under one simple mission: support the pope in his bid to convert all nations. But these developments are far from the most significant reforms implemented in Praedicate Evangelium. Most of the news coverage about the Vatican constitution revolves around the pope’s decision to allow lay Catholics (including women) to lead curial departments and around his decision to incorporate a clergy abuse commission into church government. It reveals the most radical shakeup of the Roman Curia in a generation. But the official English translation ( Preach the Gospel) was not published until June 29. Titled Praedicate Evangelium, this new constitution was published in Italian on March 19 and went into force on June 5. Now the pope and these cardinals have finished their constitution. So Pope Francis was elected with a mandate to reform the Vatican.įrancis got to work and appointed a panel of cardinals to advise him on how to reorganize the Roman Curia (the administration that governs the Vatican). After the pope’s butler leaked confidential documents to the press, exposing power struggles within the Vatican bureaucracy, Benedict decided he was too frail to implement the reforms necessary to fix the Roman Curia. Pope Benedict xvi shocked the world when he became the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages. ![]()
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