VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
John L. Allen Jr. | Sep. 24, 2013
Francis’ papacy only just reached the six-month mark, so it’s probably premature to be talking about make-or-break moments for his legacy. That said, the Oct. 1-3 maiden summit of eight cardinals from around the world, tapped by the pope to advise him on governance and reform, profiles as a potentially critical turning point.
When those eight cardinals, plus a bishop-secretary, sit down with Pope Francis in a meeting room in the Apostolic Palace, the expectation is that some serious sausage will be ground on a variety of fronts:
An ongoing cleanup of Vatican finances;
* Reorganization, and potential downsizing, of the Vatican bureaucracy;
* Ensuring that the right people end up in the right Roman jobs;
* Vexed pastoral questions such as annulments and divorced and remarried Catholics.
Dubbed the “G-8,” the panel was announced in April and styled as a move toward greater collegiality. The American on the team is Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, joined by Cardinals Giuseppe Bertello, governor of Vatican City; Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa of Santiago, Chile; Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx of Munich; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo; and George Pell of Sydney. Rodríguez is the group’s coordinator.
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