Pope names new Vatican reform committee

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Francis X. Rocca

The Vatican Secretariat of State announced April 13 that Pope Francis has named a committee of eight cardinals to assist him in reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, something that was recommended during the cardinals’ meetings that preceded the papal election last month.

The list of eight names is notable for the high representation of the Americas (three members, including Boston’s Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley) and English-speaking countries (also three, counting India). The role of coordinator has been given to Cardinal Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras.

Five continents are represented. Only two members come from Europe, the church’s traditional heartland, and only one shares the Italian nationality of the majority of Vatican officials.

The Vatican statement follows.

POPE FRANCIS APPOINTS GROUP OF CARDINALS TO ADVISE HIM ON CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND REVISION PLAN OF APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION ON ROMAN CURIA

Vatican City, 13 April 2013 (VIS) – Following is the full text of a communique issued today by the Secretariat of State.

“The Holy Father Francis, taking up a suggestion that emerged during the General Congregations preceding the Conclave, has established a group of cardinals to advise him in the government of the universal Church and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, ‘Pastor Bonus’.

The group consists of:

Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State;

Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile, Chile;

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India;

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany;

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo;

Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley O.F.M., archbishop of Boston, USA;

Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia;

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, S.D.B., archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the role of coordinator; and

Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy, in the role of secretary.

The group’s first meeting has been scheduled for 1-3 October 2013. His Holiness is, however, currently in contact with the aforementioned cardinals.”