It began with the publication of the new Vatican constitution, Praedicate evangelium, on March 19, 2022.

Up to then, the Filipino cardinal had served as the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the powerful curial department responsible for mission territories whose head is known as "the red pope."

(The appointment of New Zealand's bishops is made through the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. Ed.)

Tagle had arrived at the Vatican in 2020 in a blaze of publicity after eight years as the Archbishop of Manila.

He was known as "the Asian Francis," a charismatic speaker and servant of the poor often described as "papabile" despite his relative youth.

But in 2022, a new Vatican constitution absorbed the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples — formerly known as Propaganda Fide — into a new department, the Dicastery for Evangelisation, led directly by Pope Francis.

The department's day-to-day activities would be overseen "in his name and by his authority" by two "pro-prefects."

One pro-prefect would be responsible for the dicastery's first section, devoted to "fundamental questions regarding evangelisation in the world," and the other for the second section, "for the first evangelisation and new particular churches."

The dicastery was listed first among the Vatican departments in Praedicate evangelium, underlining its centrality in the reformed curia.

Observers assumed that Tagle would be pro-prefect of the second section. But curiosity grew when the Vatican failed to refer to the Filipino cardinal by that title.

In a press release days after the new constitution's publication, the Holy See press office described Tagle as the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

That was probably because the constitution only came into full force on June 5 that year.

But in July, the press office mentioned Tagle without giving a title.

That happened again in October and December.

It did the same for Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella, who was widely believed to be pro-prefect of the dicastery's first section.

Speculation over Tagle's standing at the Vatican heightened in November 2022 when Pope Francis swept away the leadership of Caritas Internationalis, including Tagle, who had served as its president since 2015.

Had the cardinal fallen out of favour?

Not according to official Vatican media, which presented Tagle as one of the figures responsible for the organisation's renewal, rather than a casualty of the changes.

Only on Jan. 27 this year did the Holy See press office confirm what most people had originally thought: Tagle was indeed a pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation.

On Feb. 18, the press office indicated that he was in charge of the section for first evangelisation and the new particular churches, and Fisichella was responsible for the first section. Continue reading

This was only the second time that Francis has convened the entire College of Cardinals for a discussion on a specific topic. The first gathering was an extraordinary consistory in February 2014 at which Cardinal Walter Kasper delivered the opening presentation.

It was part of preparations for the Synod of Bishops' extraordinary general assembly on family and marriage (October 2014) and the ordinary general assembly on the same topic that was held a year later (October 2015).

Cardinal Kasper's thesis, which advocated some changes in the way the Church deals with divorced and remarried Catholics, did not go unchallenged. A good number of cardinals harshly criticized his position, and indirectly the pope's as well.

Looking at Roman Curia reform

This is one of the reasons Francis waited eight years before again calling together all the members of the College of Cardinals.

The topic of the August gathering was quite different from the one in 2014: the reform of the Roman Curia, which Francis unveiled on March 19 with the publication of the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

More than a consultation, which should have happened before the promulgation of the constitution, the meeting was meant to prepare the cardinals for what is already codified in law.

Nonetheless, some further modifications are still possible, given the pope's incremental way of implementing reforms.

Not all the cardinals agreed with important parts of the apostolic constitution, especially with Praedicate Evangelium's passage that separates the exercise of Church governance from sacramental ordination.

This introduces "lay governance" on a theological foundation that contradicts the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) as spelled out in Lumen Gentium.

No high drama this time

But there was no high drama at this meeting as there was at the extraordinary consistory of 2014.

There are three reasons why.

The first is that the reform of the Roman Curia is something quite technical and juridically complex. Its results are yet to be seen and will largely depend on the top personnel Francis appoints, especially the new prefects of the dicasteries.

The cardinals discussed the separation of the power of governance from that of Holy Orders (and so lay people being given senior positions in the Roman Curia), as well as the question of what it means to be a synodal and hierarchical Church. They also focused on the issue of Vatican finances.

These are all important topics, but they were always unlikely to stir strong emotions in many cardinals (and in some quarters of the Catholic Church, especially in the United States) in the same way family and marriage did eight years before.

Outdistancing the opposition

The second reason there was little drama is that, after nine-and-a-half years as pope, Francis has outlived and overcome many of his opponents.

Some of them have died, while many others have marginalized themselves by expressing embarrassingly extreme views on certain political and ecclesial issues.

Since 2014, Francis has created many new cardinals who lead dioceses around the world, and this also influenced the mood of the August meeting.

But there is also a third and more important reason that there were no real fireworks this time — the dreaded "paradigm shift" in doctrine did not take place and those in opposition to Francis have since become convinced that anything the pope has done can be quickly reversed.

The thesis put forth by Cardinal Kasper (not a liberal by any means, judging by his recent criticisms of the German "Synodal Path") was that doctrine is not set in stone.

In his opening presentation at the 2014 extraordinary consistory there was this passage, for example:

"The doctrine of the Church is not a stagnant lagoon, but a torrent that flows from the source of the Gospel, into which the faith experience of the people of God of all centuries has flowed. It's a living tradition that today, like many other times throughout history, has reached a critical point and which, in given the 'signs of the times', it needs to be continued and deepened."

Pastoral practice vs doctrine

Eight years after the 2014 Synod assembly on family and marriage, it's fair to ask whether there has been a recalculation in Francis' roadmap, or what that roadmap was in the first place, or if there has been a lack of theological backing of Francis' pontificate.

"For years, in fact, a theological populism has spread in the Church which claims to defend Francis from the reactionaries by repeating that the pope 'does not touch doctrine', it's only about 'pastoral practice'," Church historian Alberto Melloni so accurately put in an August 26 article in the Italian daily La Repubblica.

"This is an offense against doctrine (which is not a monolith, but a hierarchy of truths), against what is consider 'pastoral' (which is an adjective of the way of being Jesus and not the marketing of the sacred for fools), and against the successor of Peter (who is a teacher of the faith and not a security guard placed in front of a vault)," Melloni wrote (translation mine).

Whenever the pope touched some critical issues for a certain kind of reactionary Catholicism in the West, the pushback from some influential cardinals, bishops, and the Catholic media system has been substantial. They have essentially argued that "no one can change doctrine, not even the pope".

And they have even leveled the subtle, yet unmistakable, accusation that the Jesuit pope is bordering on heresy.

Is it enough to change the pastoral approach without changing doctrine?

This pushback continues every time someone, even from one of the Pontifical Academies in Rome, tries to say something that might be seen as a crack in the doctrinal dam for the post-Vatican II — such as revisiting the meaning of Humanae Vitae.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are some overzealous defenders of Pope Francis who have fallen into that same trap.

For instance, there are those who retreat to the last line of defense in their uncoupling of pastoral and doctrinal change and deny that a Church more welcoming of LGBTQ Catholics implies changes in previous theological and magisterial statements.

The unaddressed — and therefore unanswered — question remains whether it is possible to be a more welcoming Church without a doctrine that leaves no doubt about such acceptance.

We have seen that Francis is not afraid to defend Vatican II from neo-traditionalists, on not just liturgical reform.

But the overall message has become, indeed, defensive. Hence the temptation has been to reduce what Francis does as pastoral, but not doctrinal, especially on intra-ecclesial issues dealing with ministry.

Some of the changes he has made, such as in his decision in January 2021 to open the stable and institutionalized ministries of lector and acolyte to women, are not being enthusiastically implemented throughout the Church — not even in Rome.

Downplaying expectations for change

This question of the relationship between pastoral practice and doctrine does not concern only our understanding of Francis' pontificate, but also the "synodal process" now that it enters its crucial phase, in the next 12 months leading up to the next assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2023.

Will the synodal process bring about change in language and style or even a change in substance on some issues? We will have to wait and see.

Two cardinals who have major roles in overseeing the 2023 gathering — Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, and Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich SJ, the papally-appointed general rapporteur of the assembly — seemed to downplay expectations for major changes during an August 26 press conference at the Vatican.

But in the last few months these two cardinals have defended the freedom and orthodoxy of people to make suggestions in the local synodal process, especially the Germans' "Synodal Path".

In doing so both men have kept a healthy distance from other cardinals and Roman Curia officials that have an interest in silencing the hopes of those Catholics who responded to the synodal consultation.

A false dichotomy

Historians know that it takes a long time for change to come about in the Church.

Francis' pontificate is far from over, and in some sense we are only now beginning to see more support for him in the College of Cardinals, from its members in Rome and those around the world. This was evident from the August meeting.

But the question now is whether the much-needed change, on those issues where the tradition and the magisterium clearly need aggiornamento, will be supported by the courage to refuse the false alternative between pastoral practice and doctrine.

The temptation is to do with Francis' pontificate what has already been done many times with Vatican II — neutralize him by opposing pastoral practice to doctrine.

The problem is that, during this pontificate, those who strongly disagree with Francis — and even those who support him — have repeated this slogan: "pastoral change, yes; doctrinal development, no".

But no one can explain precisely what this means because it is a false dichotomy.

In the history of the Church, pastoral change has always implied and caused doctrinal development and vice-versa.

The position is stipulated in Praedicate evangelium, the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia, which was published last March and went into effect on June 5.

The 62-year-old Herrera, a lawyer and graduate of the Spanish IE Business School, has spent his entire career in the field of human resources.

Most notably, he has been HR director for the Spanish branch of Yves Saint Laurent (1990-1991) and the distribution group Logista (2004-2007).

He was also HR director of the Spanish bank Inversis from 2017-2021. And since leaving this bank, he has offered his services as a coach, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups.

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The women stood outside the gates of the Vatican dressed in cardinal red, each carrying a scarlet parasol emblazoned with a phrase of female empowerment. "Ordain Women", "Reform Means Women", "It's Reigning Men".

"We hoped our witness would provoke an awakening of their consciences that there are sisters who are outside who are not included in these conversations," organiser Kate McElwee told NCR. She was speaking after being released by the Italian police responsible for St Peter's Square security.

The women hailing from the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland had marched down Rome's Via della Conciliazione, the iconic street leading into St Peter's Square. They then walked to the piazza outside the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

As prelates trickled in for a two-day meeting on the church's governance, some smiled at the women and said hello. Others took leaflets from the advocates who asked them to "pray for your sisters outside".

Francis called the meeting of the world's cardinals to discuss Praedicate Evangelium, the apostolic constitution he released in March to reorganise the Vatican's central bureaucracy.

While the document explicitly allows women to serve as leaders of Vatican departments for the first time, McElwee said she thought it was an injustice that no women were invited inside for the two days of meetings.

"We wanted our witness to stir that awareness in our brothers in Christ who are in the room," said McElwee, the executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference.

However, 20 minutes after the advocates began their protest, they were approached by Italian police who asked them to close their umbrellas.

They were then moved to a holding area where they had passports and phones confiscated. After an hour, they were taken to a nearby police station where they were held for another three hours.

After signing what McElwee described as "scores and scores" of documents agreeing to comply with an investigation, the seven women were released, with their umbrellas and materials held as evidence.

Miriam Duignan, a spokesperson for the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research and Women's Ordination Worldwide, was carrying a parasol reading "Sexism is a Cardinal Sin". She said, "It's 197 men talking about the future of the church, never mentioning women, and then seven women — completely harmless, carrying delicate little paper parasols — are so threatening to them that they had to wrongfully imprison us, humiliate us and try to intimidate us to never do it again".

"The reality is that we are a threat to the status quo," McElwee said.

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

Religion News Service

By 'clericalism' I mean the tendency to place priests on a pedestal, to accept their pronouncements as gospel, encouraging them to feel, as Pope Francis says, 'superior to lay people.'

It begins in seminary training when candidates start to see themselves as joining a unique male, celibate, secretive caste enjoying privilege and power, set apart from ordinary humanity by ordination.

Clericalism is at the root of sexual abuse when inadequate, immature men feel they can use children to satisfy their warped sexual impulses.

It is a way of life far removed from Jesus, 'the man who had nowhere to lay his head' (Matthew 8:20). It's also very different to Pope Francis' call to priests to experience 'the smell of the sheep.'

But in his recent (March 19, 2022) Apostolic Constitution entitled Praedicate Evangelium, 'Preach the Gospel', Pope Francis dealt clericalism a major blow.

This is the final document in a long-planned reform of the Roman Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy.

The cardinals who elected him in 2013 asked Francis to restructure the curia following several scandals under Benedict XVI and John Paul II.

Praedicate Evangelium is the result. The practical detail is not important; my personal view is that no matter what the structure, the curia is a creature of the 16th century and is irreformable.

But there was a basic principle laid down in Praedicate Evangelium that is profoundly important with far-reaching consequences for the whole church. This principle states that any baptised Catholic 'can preside over a dicastery,' that is run a Vatican department.

Previously only ordained clerics could do this because ordination was the absolute precondition for exercising 'ordinary jurisdiction' or church governance.

Explaining the change canon lawyer, Father (now Cardinal) Gianfranco Ghirlando, SJ said unequivocally 'that the power of governance in the church does not come from ordination, but from one's mission' (my emphasis).

The absolute centrality of baptism

Yes, but so what? Well, as sometimes happens, profound, long-term change follows a seemingly minor shift of emphasis.

Essentially, Ghirlando is saying, reflecting Francis, that you don't have to be ordained a priest to exercise the power of governance in the church.

And by 'governance' Ghirlando means the administrative authority that comes with a call from the church to carry out a specific 'mission'.

Now that's a profound transposition for a church that has been fixated on clerical power for centuries. What PE does is shift the focus away from ordination to restore the absolute centrality of baptism.

All Catholics can now share in church governance by the very fact of their baptism.

The people of God already share in the common priesthood of those baptized into Christ's death and resurrection. The distinction between the ordained and the baptised is one of function, not of the essence.

The 20th-century theologian who restored the role of laypeople was Yves Congar, OP (1904-1995). His theology broke down the separation between the spiritual and secular world, a separation that long bedevilled Catholicism.

Reflecting Congar, the Vatican II Decree on the Laity is clear that the church lives in the world to bring it to Christ, not into some separate spiritual sphere. Congar wrote that the church is challenged 'by the world to re-join it, in order to speak validly of Jesus Christ.'

This is literally the Catholic 'mission statement', the reason for the church's existence.

Historian Edmund Campion says that Catholics were persuaded by Congar that 'all of us were responsible for what the church did … that waiting to be told what to do was foolish …that there was work for us … as servants of the world which had its own destiny in God's plan' (Then and Now, 2021).

However, Praedicate Evangelium takes a step beyond the mission of all the baptised. While still using the word, Praedicate Evangelium is actually talking about a specific kind of mission.

It's saying that any baptised person can be called to governance in the church. This is a call to a more focused mission, that of leadership

Distinguished Australian theologian, John N. Collins, is helpful here.

He has conclusively shown that in the New Testament the Greek word Diakonia, which we translate as 'ministry', refers explicitly to a public role of leadership in the church's mission, which is recognised by the community (Diakonia. Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources, 1990).

So, leaders in Catholic schools, hospitals, aged care, social services or, in the terms of Praedicate Evangelium, a Vatican dicastery, are called to ministerial leadership.

Other staff are invited to share in the mission of proclaiming Christ in the world, or participating in and supporting the ethos of the organisation.

While Praedicate Evangelium is right when it re-situates mission in baptism, it would have been much clearer if it had picked up John Collins' re-interpretation of Diakonia, ministry, because that is what it is really referring to when it talks about 'presiding over a dicastery.'

In the Australian context, I would argue that the women and men exercising leadership in a specific work of the church are truly ministers.

In a Catholic school, for example, the principal and the RE co-ordinator are the ministerial leaders of the school community, modelling and engendering the mission of proclaiming Christ and the Catholic tradition.

In hospitals and aged care facilities, the leadership ministry is more complex with their disparate medical, nursing and domestic staff, visiting doctors and specialists, and volunteers.

Most Catholic hospitals are now part of larger organisations such as Mercy Health, St Vincent's Health Australia, or Calvary Health Care, with an overall coordinating body, Canberra-based Catholic Health Australia (CHA).

CHA focuses its ministerial emphasis on the 'wholistic healing ministry' of Jesus, meaning that he cured and integrated the whole person, not just the physical illness or disease.

In conclusion, there's no doubt that Praedicate Evangelium is a revolutionary if understated document. It would have been clearer if it had picked up Collins' re-interpretation of ministry as leadership because that's what it's talking about.

But it is a decisive, even revolutionary theological shift because it re-roots ministry in the mission to which all are called by baptism.

• Paul Collins is the author of 15 books, several of which focus on church governance and Australian Catholicism.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

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.

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Pell was speaking at "Real Estate and the New Evangelisation," an event held in Rome on April 28. The cardinal addressed several questions raised by recent financial scandals in the Catholic Church.

Francis' reforms of the Vatican's Curia, outlined in his long-awaited apostolic constitution, "Praedicate Evangelium" published in March, need a bit more "polishing."

But "even the most critical observers say disaster has been avoided," Pell said.

Financial scandals have plagued the Catholic institution, at least since the 1980s. Currently, 10 individuals are on trial at the Vatican, facing charges ranging from corruption to embezzlement and money laundering.

"Even if moral culpability cannot be proved among any of the Vatican personnel involved, responsibility for the incompetence must be acknowledged," Pell said.

"It seems that a history of an economic failure in a diocese or a religious order was almost a prerequisite for appointment to the Curia," the cardinal said.

According to Pell, Francis' efforts have significantly improved the economic situation at the Vatican. However, the cardinal said, "we cannot afford to lose another 500 million through incompetence or corruption in the next 40 years."

The Vatican has faced a growing deficit every year, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to its 2022 financial projections, the Catholic institution faces a $37 million deficit. This is due primarily to diminishing donations as the faithful soured over recent financial scandals.

The cardinal offered tips to address the financial situation at the Vatican: "Avoid cooperating with banks and financial agents who have a well-established reputation for shadiness," he said. "It is a prudential option that has been avoided by the Vatican for 40 years at least."

Bishops and priests involved in managing funds must understand basic economic principles as well, he said.

The pope's reforms and those put in place by his predecessors "have stopped the money laundering" he commented.

"I couldn't say that we completely spring-cleaned," Pell said. But "the people running the show are people of integrity," he added.

Sources

Religion News

Such was the case of a top Roman Curia official on March 19, just a few hours after Pope Francis had published his new apostolic constitution to fully reorganize the Church's central bureaucracy.

He was more than willing to give his views on the reforms the Argentine pope is putting into places - but, naturally, only on the condition of anonymity.

"I've heard a lot of people here lately who have been quoting a passage from the Book of Exodus: 'There came to power in Egypt a king who knew not Joseph'," the official said.

That phrase in the Old Testament marked a turning point for the chosen people. The new pharaoh forgot about Joseph, once the most powerful man in Egypt, and decided to subject the Israelites to slavery.

But what does this biblical story have to do with the pope and the Curia?

"It's simple," our source said.

"These people are eager for an about-face. They hope that once Pope Francis is gone, the next pope will forget everything he put in place and all the people he relied on."

That's a revealing interpretation of how some people in the Roman Curia are resistant to any sort of change and are hoping the end of the current pontificate comes quickly.

No doubt, the pope decided to publish his new constitution without giving any prior notice as a way to counter this resistance.

Even inside the Vatican itself, only a few officials knew beforehand of the document's release.

As one Vatican source mused: "It was a way to prevent it from being blocked."

Source

• Loup Besmond de Senneville has been a journalist with La Croix since 2011 and permanent correspondent at the Vatican since 2020.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

He was still riding the momentum of his recent election to the papacy at the time, and before a gathering of stunned cardinals and top Vatican officials he read out a list of fifteen "curial diseases" that he said were eating away at the Church's central structure from within.

Among them, the pope cited rivalries, vanity and "spiritual Alzheimer's".

This brutal realization sounded the charge against the court-like logic that withers the government of the Church and distracts it from its essential mission: the proclamation of the Gospel.

The new apostolic constitution that was released this past Saturday (March 19) is the culmination of this process of reforming the Curia. It is significant that the Gospel occupies the first place, even in the title: Praedicate evangelium (Preach the Gospel).

The text bears the seeds of several revolutions.

We find there the imprint of Pope Francis, who has always insisted on the primacy of the encounter with Christ and on the fight against clericalism.

Doctrinal issues are no longer at the top of the organizational chart.

As for the clerics, they lose their quasi-monopoly on the governing bodies. All the faithful - lay or consecrated, men or women - will be able to preside over a dicastery (the pope's "ministries"), whereas today these are mostly in the hands of cardinals.

It would be unwise to place too much hope in seemingly organizational changes.

But this powerful reform, if fully implemented, is likely to change not only the way the Church functions, but also the way it proclaims its message to the world.

This is especially true if the spirit underlying the reform spreads in a capillary way to dioceses, parishes and even the hearts of the Catholic people.

In Christian parlance, there is another word for "revolution". It's called "conversion".

• Jérôme Chapuis is the editor-in-chief of La Croix.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

On Saturday, Francis issued a new constitution for the Vatican's central administration, known as the Curia, stating that any baptised lay Catholics can head Vatican offices.

For centuries, male clerics have headed the departments, usually cardinals or bishops, but that could change from June 5, when the new charter takes effect after more than nine years of work.

The new constitution said the role of lay Catholics in governing positions in the Curia was "essential" because of their familiarity with family life and "social reality".

The 54-page constitution, called Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), was released on the ninth anniversary of Francis' installation as pope in 2013. It replaces one issued in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

The preamble says, "The pope, bishops and other ordained ministers are not the only evangelisers in the Church". It adds that lay men and women "should have roles of government and responsibility".

Another section says, "any member of the faithful can head a dicastery (Curia department)" if the pope decides they are qualified and appoints them.

It makes no distinction between lay men and lay women. However, experts said at least two departments - the department for bishops and the department for clergy - will remain headed by men because only men can be priests in the Catholic Church.

The text says choices will be made based on people's professional competence, spiritual life, pastoral experience, sobriety and love for the poor, a sense of community and "ability to recognise the signs of the times."

Francis has already named several lay people, including women, to Vatican departments.

In 2021, Francis appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini (pictured) as the Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City State. It was the first time a woman had been named to the number two position in the world's smallest state.

As part of the reorganisation, the Secretariat of State kept its premier position as administrative, coordinating and diplomatic department, while the centuries-old high status of the doctrinal office was placed below that of the evangelisation department.

The pope will head the evangelisation office himself, highlighting the importance he gives to spreading and reviving the faith.

The new office is responsible for the church's evangelical efforts worldwide, including supporting new churches. It is divided into two sections: one responsible for fundamental questions surrounding evangelisation and the other tasked with overseeing places of "first evangelisation".

Sources

Reuters

National Catholic Reporter

Deutsche Welle

In what some are calling a very significant move, the 62-year-old Archbishop of Manila will move to Rome to oversee the work of the Catholic Church in Asia, Oceania, New Zealand and most dioceses in Africa. These areas cover around one-third of the world's Catholic dioceses.

Tagle replaces Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, 73, who as been re-assigned to be Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Filoni replaces Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, 80, who has reached the retirement age.

Tagle's appointment is seen as furthering Francis' desire for a missionary church. It is also seen as a further expression of his outreach to Asia.

Historically the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples is usually referred to by its historic name, Propaganda Fide, which is one of the largest curial departments, with a size and scope exceeding most others.

And, it is likely to get larger.

Praedicate Evangelium, the new curial constitution, not yet promulgated, is expected to place even further emphasis on evangelisation as the structural priority of the Church's mission.

The expectation is Propaganda Fide will merge with the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization into a single department.

Seen as an impressive communicator, Tagle hosted hour-long television programmes in the Philippines, sharing scriptural insights and answering viewer's questions on the Bible and faith.

Then beginning in 2007, Tagle hosted a talk show "Light Talk," for which he often invited professionals and young people to discuss current issues.

John Paul II appointed Tagle as bishop of Imus in 2002 and in 2011 Benedict XVI made him Archbishop of Manila. One year later Benedict created him a Cardinal.

Tagle has been on three successive synods of bishops and was elected to the council, generally a sign of respect and esteem by his peers.

Since May 2015, Tagle has been president of Caritas Internationalis.

He is known to share the synodal vision of a missionary church promoted by Pope Francis and like Francis, his concern for the disadvantaged is reflected in his lifestyle.

By moving him to the Vatican, Francis gives Tagle the chance to gain experience at the heart of the Church's central administration.

Sources

• Reuters
• America
• CNA
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