VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The Council of eight cardinals meets with the Pope between 1 and 3 October. All heads of Holy See dicasteries have presented proposals
ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN CITY
The programme for the meeting of eight cardinals in charge of advising the Pope on the “government of the universal Church” and studying ” a project of revision of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus on the Roman Curia” has been set. But before the three-day work session with Francis (1-3 October) begins, next week cardinals will hold a number of informal meetings to set straight as many details as possible and make the meetings in which the Pope will actually be present, more fruitful.
Readers will recall that last 13 April, exactly a month after his election to the papacy, Bergoglio appointed a group of eight cardinals from across all continents: Giuseppe Bertello (the group’s only Italian Curia member), Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa (the group’s only emeritus member), Oswald Gracias, Reinhard Marx, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Sean Patrick O’Malley, George Pell and Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga. Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga is also the group coordinator, while Marcello Semeraro, Bishop of Albano (Italy), will function as secretary.
Over the past few months, cardinals have been in touch with one another, bouncing ideas and suggestions off each other and above all, collecting material and requests from their respective Episcopates. But the Pope’s closest collaborators, the members of the Roman Curia were not excluded from this process either. All heads of dicasteries presented reform proposals or at least proposals to improve coordination between Curia offices and their activities. At last Tuesday’s inter-dicasterial meeting, convened by Francis, everyone present gave a summary of the proposals given. So the Curia itself is playing a key part in the global rethinking of its activities.
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