International News

Pope Creates Permanent Council of Cardinals

October 2, 2013

by  Francis X. Rocca

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis made his international advisory panel on Church governance a permanent council of cardinals, thereby emphasizing the importance and open-endedness of its work among his pontificate’s various efforts at reform.

The Vatican made the announcement Sept. 30, a day before Pope Francis was scheduled to meet for the first time with the panel, which has been informally dubbed the “Group of Eight” or “G-8.”

Pope Francis meets with cardinals at the Vatican Sept. 30 during the consistory in which he announced April 27, 2014 as the date for the canonization of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II. The Polish pontiff, who led the Catholic Church for 27 years and witnessed the fall of communism, and Pope John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council, will be declared saints in a single ceremony on Divine Mercy Sunday.
Pope Francis meets with cardinals at the Vatican Sept. 30 during the consistory in which he announced April 27, 2014 as the date for the canonization of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II. The Polish pontiff, who led the Catholic Church for 27 years and witnessed the fall of communism, and Pope John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council, will be declared saints in a single ceremony on Divine Mercy Sunday.

The new Council of Cardinals will have the “task of assisting me in the governance of the universal church and drawing up a project for the revision of the apostolic constitution ‘Pastor Bonus’ on the Roman Curia,” Pope Francis wrote in his decree, dated Sept. 28.

“Pastor Bonus,” published in 1988, was the last major set of changes in the Roman Curia, the Church’s central administration at the Vatican.

Corruption and mismanagement in the Vatican bureaucracy, sensationally documented in the 2012 “VatiLeaks” of confidential correspondence, were a major topic of discussion among members of the College of Cardinals during meetings prior to the papal election in March.

As he has said several times since the advisory panel was announced last April, Pope Francis noted in his decree that the council was a response to suggestions by his fellow cardinals at the pre-conclave meetings.

The council’s field of potential concern extends far beyond Vatican reform, and Pope Francis has said that its deliberations will include the question of the eligibility of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Broad Representation

The eight council members, who include Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley and Sydney Cardinal George Pell, represent six continents, with the largest number – three members – coming from the Americas.

In his decree, Pope Francis left open the possibility that he would change the size of the council. He suggested last summer that he plans to add at least one representative of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Though the pope’s first meeting with the entire council was scheduled for Oct. 1-3, he has spoken separately with its members on numerous occasions since last April, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, at a briefing Sept. 30.

Father Lombardi said that the Vatican had received approximately 80 documents containing proposals for the council’s consideration, apart from whatever the members themselves would bring to the table.