The Francis Effect in the Curia: More Unemployment
By Sandro Magister
September 9, 2016 – It made news this summer when two new dicasteries consolidated no fewer than six previous curial offices. The first consolidation unified as of September 1 in a new “dicastery for laity, family, and life" the functions carried out until then by the pontifical council for the laity and by the pontifical council for the family, plus reinforced supervision of the pontifical academy for life and of the pontifical John Paul II institute for studies on marriage and family. The second consolidation will unify effective next January 1 in a new “dicastery for the service of comprehensive human development" the functions of the pontifical council for justice and peace, of the pontifical council “Cor Unum,” of the pontifical council for the pastoral care of migrants and itinerants, of the pontifical council for the pastoral care of health care workers. To preside over the new dicastery, Pope Francis has called from the United States the bishop of Dallas, Irish by birth, Kevin J. Farrell. While as head of the second he has placed the Ghanaian cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, former president of the pontifical council for justice and peace. These appointments also made news, as did that of Vincenzo Paglia, former president of the pontifical council for the family, as president of the pontifical academy for life and grand chancellor of the pontifical John Paul II institute for studies on marriage and family. But silence has fallen over the packed crowd of Vatican dignitaries who have been left idle - or in other words, unemployed - following these two consolidations. For starters, it is not known what will become of Polish cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, 71, outgoing president of the pontifical council for the laity. If he does not want to go back to his native land to lead the diocese of Krakow in the place of 77-year-old cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, he could remain in the curia or be left unemployed. In Rome, the possible posts available for resituating him are that of prefect of the congregation for the causes of saints, where Cardinal Angelo Amato has passed the age of 78, or that of archpriest of the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major, where Spanish cardinal Santos Abril y Castello is approaching the age of 81. But also left idle are the secretary and undersecretary of the defunct pontifical council for the laity: respectively the German bishop Josef Clemens, 69, former secretary of then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he was replaced by Georg Ganswein, and the Spaniard Miguel Delgado Galindo, 53, a member of Opus Dei, whose current status as unemployed is identical to that of the parallel undersecretary of the former pontifical council for the family, Carlos Simon Vazquez, 50, he too a Spaniard and a member of Opus. With the advent of the new dicastery for the service of comprehensive human development, the potentially unemployed are many more. Those who would be let go: - “Dame” Flaminia Giovanelli, 68, undersecretary of the pontifical council for justice and peace; - Indian bishop Joseph Kalathiparambil, 65, secretary of the pontifical council for migrants, and the undersecretary of the same, the Scalabrinian Gabriele Ferdinando Bentoglio, 54; - Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, 54, secretary of the pontifical council “Cor Unum," and the undersecretary of the same, the Spaniard Segundo Tajado Munoz, 56, a Neocatechumenal; - Jean-Marie Mate Musivi Mupendawatu, 61, secretary of the pontifical council for the pastoral care of health care workers, and the undersecretary of the same, the Camillian Augusto Chendi, 58. If one then looks at the non-executive personnel of the offices now consolidated, the Holy See will have to resituate: - 19 at the pontifical council for the laity (1 cleric and 18 laymen); - 7 at the pontifical council for the family (4 clerics and 3 laymen); - 16 at the pontifical council for justice and peace (4 clerics and 12 laymen); - 14 at the pontifical council for migrants (5 clerics, 2 religious, 7 laymen); - 7 at the pontifical council “Cor Unum” (1 cleric, 1 religious, 5 laymen); - 9 at the pontifical council for health care workers (3 clerics, 1 religious, 5 laymen). The 50 lay employees cited should not be in any danger, because Pope Francis has said repeatedly that he will never fire the father or mother of a family. But a different fate may be in store for the 18 clerics and 4 religious. Any of them could be sent packing out of the blue, back to their respective dioceses or congregations. To learn their destiny - like that of the 13 officials of the extinct pontifical council for social communications (2 clerics and 11 laymen) and of the 4 still on the staff of the now inoperative prefecture for economic affairs (1 cleric and 3 laymen) - one need only await the publication of the next Annuario Pontificio, with the updated organizational structure of the whole curia. * So after the cleanup of the six pontifical councils consolidated in the two new dicasteries, the only former executive left hanging is Cardinal Turkson. Plus to a lesser extent Paglia, back on the job of bringing into line the John Paul II institutes for studies on marriage and family, in order to get them to propagate the new magisterium of Pope Francis even when it may depart - as on communion for the divorced and remarried - from that which was defended and supported by the holy pontiff whose name they bear. A bit like what happened with the seminaries founded and named after Saint Pius X to defend future priests from modernism, which at a certain point themselves began to spread teachings considered modernist in his day, while still keeping the name of that pope. Two last observations. For the first time in the history of the curia, today there are dicasteries that have been officially named . . . dicasteries. This apparent tautology has not been explained and it is not clear if it is definitive or temporary, in view of that organic reform of the curia which does not yet seem to be around the corner. Temporary, however - literally: “ad tempus” - is the direct assumption of leadership by Pope Francis of the announced section for refugees and migrants in the new dicastery for the service of comprehensive human development. This is an absolutely unprecedented decision, as Andrea Tornielli emphasized in “La Stampa,” while there is no foundation to the intriguing idea presented by the agency Zenit, according to which the decision had its root in the curial reform desired by Paul VI, to whom was attributed the intention of commandeering for himself the leadership of certain congregations, like that of the Holy Office and the one for bishops. When in reality, with the Montinian reform of the curia, what happened was the exact opposite. ____________ Among the curial offices that have outlived their usefulness is the prefecture for economic affairs, replaced de facto by the new secretariat for the economy headed by Cardinal George Pell. Inexplicably, however, it has not been suppressed. And its executives and officials are still at their posts, including the secretary of the organism, Spanish prelate Lucio Vallejo Balda, sentenced to 18 months in prison for releasing confidential documents:
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