According to his sources, the Rome-based editor for La Croix International, says that

• Pope Francis has signed off Praedicate Evangelium, the upcoming apostolic constitution that will reform the Roman Curia.
• Francis will receive the resignation of around 20 top Vatican officials, and
• several new cardinals are likely to be appointed.

Mickens' says that Praedicate Evangelium is currently being translated into the major languages and once translated it will be published.

He acknowledges that in the middle of the Roman summer, the timing for this is out of the ordinary, however, notes that regardless of when it happens the effects will likely be historic.

Mickens says the re-shaped Roman Curia will need new leadership and as an example of that Francis recently brought the 63-year-old Filipino Cardinal Luis Tagle to Rome to head up the renewed Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and promoted him to be a Cardinal Bishop.

To make way for new energy and the new structure Francis Francis will likely accept the resignations of many of those over 75 or who have completed five years in their posts.

Among those the positions looking for new energy includes controversial conservative Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, 75, has also exceeded his five-year term as head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

According to Mickens it is also likely a new prefect at the Congregation for Bishops will be needed to replace Cardinal Marc Ouellet (76) who has held this post for ten years - five years longer than the usual tenure.

A significant position, the Congregation for Bishops oversees the selection of most new bishops.

Five or six of the eight cardinals that make up the Council for the Economy are also expected to be replaced, namely because they are over 75 and already retired from their primary jobs as diocesan bishops.

They include Cardinals

• John Tong Hon, former Bishop of Hong Kong, soon to be 81;
• Agostino Vallini, 80, former Vicar of Rome;
• Wilfrid Napier OFM, 79, soon to retire as Archbishop of Durban;
• Norberto Rivera Carrera, 78, former Archbishop of Mexico City;
• Juan Luis Cipriani, 76, former Archbishop of Lima; and
• Jean-Pierre Ricard,75, former Archbishop of Bordeaux.

Besides farewelling some long-serving Curia leaders, Mickens reports the Vatican has ordered 15 new cardinal's rings suggesting a number of new cardinals are likely.

Just who the new cardinals will be and who will lead the various departments under the new Curia setup has not yet been announced.

Mickens notes that in recent times 'red hat ceremonies' have become "elaborate galas", but need not be, particularly during a time when churchgoers in Rome need to respect social distancing and wear facemasks.

"Making new cardinals in a small, more sober setting, at a time one least expects?

"Unusual, yes. But not beyond Pope Francis", Mickens concludes.

Source

• La Croix
• National Catholic Reporter

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, who co-ordinates the council of nine cardinals advising the Pope, said reform of the curia is a normal response to changing times.

The current process may feel different because Pope Francis exercises his ministry with a new style, the cardinal said.

Cardinal Rodriguez dated the first modern reform of the Curia to St Pius X at the beginning of the 20th century, the second to Pope Paul VI after the Second Vatican Council, and the third to St John Paul II, with his 1988 apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus.

He said that change would not come overnight, but it would not be dragged out indefinitely.

"Many people are thinking that tomorrow the reform will take place. The last reformation, of Pope John Paul, took eight years!"

"Of course, we're not intending to spend eight years.

"Consultations of that time were not so easy, because they didn't have the Internet.

"Now we communicate and make surveys of the whole Church by new media and that is very good," Cardinal Rodriguez said.

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The Telegraph quoted Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras saying the cardinal have received suggestions on Vatican reform from around the world.

The current Church constitution was drawn up in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

The pope and the cardinals are scheduled to meet from Oct. 1-3. After the meetings, Pope Francis will review proposals for changes to the constitution, according to Rome Reports.

The Telegraph said Cardinal Maradiaga announced that the cardinals were planning to go much further that just changing "this and that" in the Constitution.

"We need to write something different," Maradiaga was quoted as saying.

Gerard O'Connell, a Vatican analyst at the Vatican Insider, said that in the past the Vatican has just revised existing rules, "so this is a rupture after a century of increasing centralization.

The seven other cardinals who will attend the meetings are Francisco Javier Errazuriz from Chile, Oswald Gracias from India, Reinhard Marx from Germany, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya from Congo, George Pell from Australia, Sean Patrick O'Malley from the United States and Giuseppe Bertello of Italy.

Sources

The Telegraph

Fox News

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