A new constitution comes into force in the Vatican on Sunday, with which Pope Francis has reorganised the authority apparatus of the Catholic Church.
Observers see in the new document which has the Latin title “Praedicate Evangelium” (Proclaim the Gospel) a clear will to reform on the part of the 85-year-old head of the Catholic Church.
Among other things, the new constitution allows lay people and therefore also women to head dicasteries, which are like ministries in the Vatican’s governing structure, and so also the highest offices in the Curia as the Vatican’s government is known.
This role was previously reserved only for cardinals and archbishops, and thus exclusively for men.
The Pope also placed the Curia more at the service of the bishops in the world.