VATICAN CITY
Chiesa
VATICAN CITY, February 4, 2014 – The president and secretary general of the Italian episcopal conference may continue to be appointed by the pope. This is what the bishops of Italy themselves want, after Pope Francis asked them last May, in the name of greater collegiality, to review the statutes of the CEI and rethink the ways of appointing the president and secretary.
An extensive consultation of the Italian episcopate was carried out in recent months on this point. And the results were made public at the end of the winter session of the permanent council, the mini-parliament of the CEI made up of roughly thirty members, which was held at the end of January in Rome.
Contrary to what takes place in almost all the episcopal conferences of the world, in Italy the presidency is not elective, but of pontifical appointment. And not without reason. The pope is in fact the bishop of Rome and primate of Italy. And as bishop of Rome – a title that Jorge Mario Bergoglio prefers – he is a member of the CEI, even if he does not actually participate in its activities. And so if he did not have a say in appointing the leaders he would find himself in the paradoxical situation of one who, in spite of having authority superior to that of all the episcopal conferences, as far as his own diocese is concerned would have to submit to decisions and stances taken without his direct participation.
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