VATICAN CITY
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Editor April 28, 2016
Contrary to popular mythology, the Vatican is hardly a sprawling bureaucracy comparable to, say, the roughly three million people who work for the federal government in the United States. All in, we’re talking about a work force of under 5,000, which means it’s more akin to a village than an empire.
In such a small world, personnel is always policy: Choices about who gets the most important jobs inevitably drive how decisions are made.
Pope Francis has been running the show for three years now, and at first blush, it’s tempting to say that almost nothing has changed on the personnel front. As of today, almost three-quarters of the officials who lead important departments are still hold-overs from the reign of emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.
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