VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service
David Gibson | February 12, 2015
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis called for a Vatican that operates with “absolute transparency” as he gathered more than 150 cardinals in Rome for high-level meetings aimed at tackling one of the toughest challenges of his reformist papacy: overhauling the dysfunctional bureaucracy of the Roman Curia.
“The goal we are aiming for is always that of encouraging greater harmony in the work of the various (curial offices) in order to create a more effective collaboration in that absolute transparency that builds authentic … collegiality,” Francis said Thursday (Feb. 12) to a lecture hall filled with the scarlet clad “princes of the church,” as the cardinals are known.
“Reform is not an end in itself, but a means of bearing a powerful Christian witness,” Francis said, a nod to the scandals that in recent years undermined the Vatican’s credibility with the public and dismayed churchmen around the world who had to deal with the fallout.
The two-day gathering with the cardinals – among them 20 new appointees who the pope will officially enroll in their ranks on Saturday – comes almost two years to the day after Francis’ predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, stunned the world by announcing that he would become the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign from office.
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