The tongues are certainly waging worldwide over the Christmas message of Pope Francis. His address to staff at the Vatican – the priests, monsignors, bishops and cardinals gathered for an end of year assessment by the pope of the year that has passed. A few perfunctory words to round out a very busy year or Read more
The creation of a new Vatican Congregation for the Laity appears to be a likely first step in the reform of the Roman Curia. Many are welcoming this as a recognition that the laity have just as important a role in the church as bishops, clergy and religious, each of which has a congregation dedicated Read more
A three hour meeting, Monday, between Pope Francis and the heads of department discussed proposals for Vatican Curia reform. The Vatican released little information about the meeting; Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ, reminded journalists that meetings between Pope Francis and the department heads were six-monthly events. Lombardi however confirmed the meeting took three hours Read more
If you want to understand how Pope Francis is planning to change the Catholic church, then don’t waste time searching for clues in the charming, self-effacing press conference he gave on the plane back from South Korea on Monday. It’s easy to be misled by the Pope’s shoulder-shrugging interviews and impromptu phone calls. On his Read more
It was possibly a watershed moment in Holy See media relations. The scene was the Sala Stampa of the Holy See some 10 days ago. Australian Cardinal George Pell was presenting the New Economic Framework for the Holy See, a document which outlines proposed major reforms not only to IOR (the Vatican bank) and to Read more
A third meeting of Pope Francis with his international Council of eight cardinals has ended without specific details being made public. Among the items under consideration were financial matters and the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy, and, according to La Stampa, Vatican Spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi told journalists, the Pope’s advisors, yesterday, presented their initial Read more
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, of Honduras, the president of the Council of eight (C8) which Pope Francis has called to advise him on administrative reform, was in Wellington last week. He came there straight from the first meeting of C8. Wellington’s Catholic newspaper, Wel-Com reports that Cardinal Rodriguez said the C8 plans to help the Read more
The new Vatican Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, has officially assumed his new role, but he could not attend the hand-over ceremony because of emergency surgery. The reason for the surgery was not made known at the time, but a Vatican source later said the 58-year-old archbishop — seen as the key person to Read more
In a wide-ranging interview with a left-leaning Italian newspaper, Pope Francis has lamented a “Vatican-centric” view prevailing within the Roman Curia and said “I’ll do everything I can to change it”. On the subject of Church leaders, he said: “You know what I think about this? Heads of the Church have often been narcissists, flattered Read more
When addressing the cardinal conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Buenos Aires warned of “self-preferentiality” and “theological narcissism,” which he said would lead to a “sick” Church. He particularly criticized the “mundane Church that lives within itself, of itself and for itself.” Six months into his papacy, it is crystal clear that this Argentine cardinal, Read more