Curia reforms put priority on evangelization

ROME — The proposed apostolic constitution for reforming and governing the Roman Curia is expected to emphasize the church's missionary mandate with the creation of a “super-dicastery” merging two offices dedicated to evangelization.

“The main point of the new apostolic constitution is that the church's mission is evangelization. It puts it at the center of the church and of everything the Curia does,” Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, told Vida Nueva, a Spanish weekly publication dedicated to news about the Catholic Church.

Cardinals Gracias and Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, both members of Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals, spoke to the Spanish weekly about the final draft of reforms the council approved at its previous meeting in early April. Vida Nueva provided Catholic News Service with an advance copy of the Spanish-language article, which was to be published April 27.  

The provisional title of the new constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), “shows that evangelization is the number one goal, ahead of anything else,” Cardinal Gracias told Vida Nueva.

“Pope Francis always emphasizes that the church is missionary,” Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said, which is why the new dicastery will supersede the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in importance.

The new Dicastery of Evangelization will be a consolidation of the current Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which coordinates the church's missionary activities, and the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, which aims to promote a renewal of the faith in countries where Christian vitality has been waning.

Other major changes expected, the cardinals said, include: merging the Pontifical Council for Culture with the Congregation for Catholic Education; transforming the current Papal Almoner's office, which is charged with coordinating Pope Francis' acts of charity, into a Dicastery for Charity; and granting greater authority to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Cardinal Gracias said it was important the papal commission remain independent from the Roman Curia in order to maintain its credibility; however, “if you are not part of the Curia, you have no power over it.”

He said, “It's necessary to strike a balance between credibility and effectiveness” for the commission, whose mandate has been advising the pope and helping local churches understand and utilize best practices when it comes to safeguarding minors from abuse.

A major focus of the constitution is to create a change in mentality and in the relationship between the Holy See and the local churches, represented by the world's bishops, Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said.

The constitution places the Vatican dicasteries at the service of both the pope and the bishops, who are “successors of the apostles” and “are not in an ecclesiological position below those who work in the Roman Curia,” the Honduran cardinal said.

Cardinal Gracias said, “The pope wanted a mindset of service to prevail and that the Curia also be directly available to the bishops” in order to help them.   The various Vatican offices, therefore, are not meant to be something placed between the bishops and the pope nor are they to be just an “instrument” the pope uses to “supervise” the bishops; the curia is meant to be at the service of both the bishops and the pope, the Indian cardinal said.

The constitution also will include reforms that have already gone into effect, such as the creation of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Communication.

Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said the new offices and upcoming reforms not only streamline the Curia, but also “emphasize the importance of the laity in the church and for the church” by allowing the possibility for a layperson to head a dicastery. Traditionally, congregations have a cardinal as prefect and pontifical councils have had either a cardinal or an archbishop as president.

The constitution's prologue will emphasize the missionary role of all baptized men and women, not just those who have been ordained or consecrated, the Honduran cardinal added.  

The draft has been sent to the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, the leaders of world's bishops' conferences, the synods of the Eastern Catholic churches, the conferences of major superiors of men and women religious and some pontifical universities for their observations and suggested improvements.  

The two cardinals said they do not expect major changes to come out of the consultative phase since the five-year process of drafting the constitution involved gathering the ideas and concerns of the local churches and the various Vatican offices.

It is hoped each “overall assessment” will be handed in before the end of May -- in time for the six-member Council of Cardinals to study the suggestions and have an amended draft to give to the pope to sign June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. If the suggestions do not come in time, the constitution's publication would most likely be delayed until after the summer, the cardinals said.

The apostolic constitution will replace “Pastor Bonus,” St. John Paul II's 1988 constitution reforming the Curia.

The new constitution was not going to be a mere “cosmetic change but will promote the change in mentality that has already started,” Cardinal Gracias said.

“The Roman Curia will never be the same anymore,” Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga added.

The Council of Cardinals has been advising the pope on the reform of the Curia and church governance in general since Pope Francis created the body soon after his election in 2013.

The council currently has six members: Cardinals Rodriguez Maradiaga; Gracias; Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Sean P. O'Malley of Boston; Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany; and Giuseppe Bertello, president of the commission governing Vatican City State.

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

Papal document addresses challenges of evangelizing in the digital age

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - (APRIL 2, 2019) - While digital communications and social media can be used as a tool of evangelization and a place of dialogue with others, they also can be lonely environments where young people fall prey to humanity's worst vices, Pope Francis wrote.

In his new apostolic exhortation to young people, "Christus Vivit" ("Christ Lives"), the pope warned that as the digital environment continues to become the norm, it has had a "profound impact" on young people's ability to communicate and develop relations with others.

"The fresh and exuberant lives of young people who want to affirm their personality today confront a new challenge: that of interacting with a real and virtual world that they enter alone, as if setting foot on an undiscovered global continent," he said.

Calling young people to be missionary disciples and to set out to areas their elders have left largely untouched, Pope Francis said young people should be encouraged to fill social networks with "God, fraternity and commitment."

The document, released April 2, includes the pope's reflections on various issues discussed during the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment.

Among other challenges facing young men and women in the modern world, the pope addressed the advantages and pitfalls of digital communication, which has shaped today's "ideas of time and space, our self-understanding, our understanding of others and the world, and our ability to communicate, learn, be informed and enter into relationship with others."

The digital environment, he warned, also can be a world of "loneliness, manipulation, exploitation and violence" that has the power to create "a delusional parallel reality that ignores human dignity."

"Digital spaces blind us to the vulnerability of another human being and prevent us from our own self-reflection. Problems like pornography distort a young person's perception of human sexuality," the pope said.

Additionally, he continued, an "approach to reality that privileges images over listening and reading has influenced the way people learn and the development of their critical sense."

In fact, during a briefing on the document at the Vatican press office April 2, a journalist asked if the Vatican really expected to reach young men and women with a 183-page exhortation.

Bishop Fabio Fabene, undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, said the task of informing young Catholics about the contents of "Christus Vivit" would fall to the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life.

"It will be their task, and we will pass along this request so they can do a summary or find a way to pass along the content of this apostolic exhortation, even in the digital world, by using the language of young people," Bishop Fabene said.

The Vatican summary on the Exhortation can be found at: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-apostolic-exhortation-christ-is-alive-synthesis.html

Tucson area JP II Awards

To all of the students chosen to receive John Paul II Awards this year. The awards recognize those high school juniors and seniors who have made significant contributions to parish/school life by demonstrating leadership qualities and extraordinary commitsment over a period of time.

Youth leaders in many dioceses have noted that through participation in parish life and groups teens will experience personal growth in faith and a richer understanding of our Catholic tradition. Through parish youth ministry programs, high school Campus Ministry activities, and Catholic youth organizations/movements, teens have varied opportunities to develop leadership skills in the areas of Missionary Disciples, Missionaries of Mercy, and Liturgical Leadership. The purpose this our 15th annual awards dinner is to recognize and affirm the outstanding high school youth in the Diocese of Tucson.

My congratulations to the students and their family members who most surely had a role in helping their younger family members see the value of service.

Click here to go to photos.