Pope Francis is beyond that mentality and that kind of webs. Instinctive, spontaneous (he told journalists on the way back from the Holy Land that «the best gestures are those that come out from spontaneity»); Pope Francis wants an “Outward-Looking Church”, and barely cares about what had been there before, because – he writes in the “Evangelii Gaudium” – «one cannot hide behind ‘it has always been done this way’». The Pope admitted not to have any specific plan for the Church and he is now applying to the Church the one and only objective that he always deemed pivotal, dating back to the time he was a provincial of the Jesuits: that the Church be missionary, and for her to earn a clean image that can make her mission appealing.

The Pope’s work is difficult within a Roman Curia that has always resisted new outlooks. The Holy See has always been conscious that the relationship with Italy could have more shadows than lights. When the Holy See and Italy finally signed the Conciliation in 1929, the Holy See decided not to accept any ambassador to the Holy See who at the same time was an ambassador accredited to Italy (and resident in Italy). This was a result of the memories of the First World War: the moment when Italy declared war to Germany, the German ambassador to Italy naturally left, and the Holy See remained without a diplomatic link to Germany.

The progressive internationalization of the Roman Curia was started by a Pope who had been serving as a diplomat and was very conscious of the importance of the Church’s sovereignty. Pius XII had been Papal nuncio to Germany, where he was able to carry out and sign a concordat with the Nazi country (as such agreements are meant to be reached with people you do not trust, rather than friends). As a Pope, he progressively increased the number of non-Italian cardinals. In the last years of his pontificate, tired, already old and knowing that he could not govern with the proper strength, Pius XII froze Vatican hiring, leaving everything in his successor’s hands.

His successor was John XXIII, another former nuncio, who had lived his glory days in Bulgaria and Turkey before being appointed Papal nuncio to France during the years of the Second World War. John XXIII experienced in the East the richness of the ecumenical dialogue and in Europe the ferment of the Catholic movements that, since the beginning of the 20th century, were spreading to politics, society and even industries, seeking a renewal of the Christian experience that he promoted with the Second Vatican Council. John XXIII finally opened the Church to the world, and positioned it in the international context not only as a moral authority, but also as a ‘super partes’ State able to promote peace negotiations.

After him, Paul VI was elected. He had been the spiritual assistant for the University Federation of Italian Catholics (FUCI) and thus personally knew all the Italian Catholic men in politics. Like Pius XII, Paul VI paid close attention to what was happening in Italy. Like Pius XII, Paul VI wanted the Italian privileged relationship model to be projected beyond the National border – the Italian privileged relationship understood not as that of groups of interests that acted here and there around the Vatican borders, but one that had resulted in the fact that Italy was an exception in how it had successfully resisted the pressure of secularizing trends.

After the very short pontificate of John Paul I, John Paul II followed. The scenario definitely changed. John Paul II wanted a Church with a strong presence in society, able to be the lifeblood of society. It was not just opening a dialogue with the world. It was rather being relevant in the world, and taking the leading role for human renewal, as the Church in Poland had done there. The ‘earthquake’ that followed this vision marked a change of the roadmap for the presence of laity in public life in Italy.

Committed to the institutions they had themselves inspired (the Italian Constitution is based on the Camaldoli Code, drafted by a group from the FUCI in 1944), Catholics in politics in Italy maintained a very timid dialogue with the institutions they were part of. John Paul II asked for more relevance, and the Pope’s appeal was welcomed by the ecclesiastical movements, the true novelty of the Second Vatican Council.

The most famous and widespread movements (the Focolari Movement, Communion and Liberation) were born in Italy, and there they established a base for Catholics committed to society. These movements took over the organization of the new presence of Catholics in public life. They led the debates which had been at the core of the Italian public discourse until now.

In particular, Communion and Liberation took over the role of enhancing the presence of Catholics in the country and to serve as a cultural guide, bringing forward debates of magnitude on issues like religious freedom, bioethics, and subsidiarity.

Nowadays, a different roadmap seems more appropriate. An internal dialogue within Communion and Liberation itself points in this direction. Julian Carrón, the successor of CL’s founder Father Luigi Giussani, stressed in a document ahead of elections to the European parliament that there is a need to return to the essentials, the announcement of the Gospel, before forming groups of positive pressure. In the document, Carrón drew heavily from Benedict XVI, and carried on the discussion referring to Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium.

Carrón’s words dwelled into the spirit of Father Giussani. Promoter of a Christianity imbuing every aspect of life, Father Giussani periodically reminded his followers not to make of «structure, organization, principles» more than of the main goal of being Christian, the announcement of the Gospel. This is the reason why Father Giussani never gave CL the contours of an association. And this is the reason why he chose Julian Carrón as his successor. Carrón is a Spaniard who formed a movement before knowing Communion and Liberation. Once he met Father Giussani, Carrón joined CL with his movement. The same path had been followed by the founders of the Brazilian movement Trabalhadores sem Tierra, who are now responsible for CL in Brazil.

The movement’s outward-looking strategy was also manifested in the choice for president of the Compagnia delle Opere (CDO), the CL’s economic-financial branch. Lawmakers linked to CDO have recently been involved in several business scandals in Italy, since they are tied hand in glove to a certain financial-political milieu. The president is now Bernhard Scholz, a German who is completely out of this kind of logic, who is moving the CDO to a brand new world, outside of the Italian mind-frame.

Carrón’s words triggered a profound self-reflection within Communion and Liberation. There were those, like the philosopher Massimo Borghesi, who noted that many cultural struggles had become more an expression of a sort of Christian lobby than part of the evangelization. And those who, like the journalist Antonio Socci –who took part with conviction in those battles – underlined the importance of that way of taking part in the public discourse. Even standing in opposition or making alliances with the secular world without the intention of evangelizing it.

This discussion certainly goes beyond Communion and Liberation and – on a smaller scale – is replicated in the Catholic Church.

After John Paul II, Benedict XVI carried on this outward-looking strategy. He spoke of a «non moralist Church » and of the primacy of evangelization in several occasions, the most bold ones were the off-the-cuff speech to Swiss bishops in 2006 and the speech held in Freiburg during his 2011 trip to Germany. Benedict XVI placed the roots of faith in truth, speaking about God and freeing the Church of any kind of political constraints; and he gave the Holy See an international mentality, also on a juridical level on which every structure is based: the reform of Vatican finances, the reform of the Vatican penal code, the way of managing diplomacy, are part of Benedict XVI’s legacy.

And Benedict XVI was constantly under attack because he was not bound to the old logic. John Paul II’s huge effort decreased in the last years, when he was sick and tired. Then, the curiali, led by the then Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, made new ties with the Italian world, backed by a certain type of provincial thinking, benefitting from John Paul II’s popularity. In the last period of John Paul II’s pontificate, the Church had become the reign of the curia’s “pope-chaps” rather than a fountain of cultural dialogue.

The members of the Curia of the old days pushed for a new image of the Papacy in the last conclave. A more popular papacy, in order to mitigate the damage to that image, that they themselves had infringed during Benedict XVI’s pontificate. Pope Francis met their needs. An outward-looking Pope, that would allow the Curia to be rebuilt according to the old schemes. And Pope Francis ultimately appointed the men of the Curia of the old days to many key posts, and praised the “old Curiale”.

At the same time, Pope Francis does not love the old ‘Italian fix’, and perhaps his future choices will be a surprise for those who were hoping a return of the old days. Putting aside any diplomatic reverence, Pope Francis instinctively goes beyond the old schemes of the Curia. Although the informal Papacy may present some limits, it is also true that Pope Francis may also contribute to strengthen the international profile of the Catholic Church. He designed the profile of the outward-looking Church. How it may be shaped for what concerns its governance is yet to be determined. The Pope will need very good consultants. One of them, a hidden one, may be Benedict XVI. Looking at the discussion about reforms and listening to rumors on his next moves, it is conceivable that Pope Francis’ next choices will be to further the goal of giving the Church an ever more international character.

The next consistory (the official ceremony where the selection of new Cardinals is confirmed) will be a good test. The consistory will take place Feb. 22, while a meeting of the Council of Eight cardinals will be held on Feb. 17-18 and the Council of the Synod will meet on Feb. 24. Altogether, there will be about 15 days of consultations of cardinals, taking into account that a meeting of the council of cardinals for economic and managerial affairs of the Holy See (the so-called Council of Fifteen) will be held in February, the week before the meeting of the Council of Eight.

A Vatican official told Mondayvatican Oct. 30: «More than a consistory for the creation of new cardinals, I have the impression that this will be mostly a sort of synod of cardinals. It will represent a new way to offer advice, with cardinals from all over the world, giving everybody the opportunity to share their opinions. It will be something very similar to the CELAM assembly, which the cardinals in the group of eight have clearly said inspired their thinking about a reform of the synod of bishops.»

Cardinal Maradiaga is the coordinator of the group of eight cardinals, while Errazuiz Ossa is one of its most influential members. With more frequency in recent times, Maradiaga has expanded on his ideas about the Curia reform. He has also raised the reform of the IOR (the Institute for Religious Works, the so-called Vatican bank), although it is not part of the curia reform. He has shared with the media many details about what he thinks these reforms should entail.

That of the Congregation for the Laity is his most recent proposal, and some Canon law experts, as well as committed layman in the Catholic Church, have received the idea with skepticism.

In the Roman Curia, there are two different kinds of departments (a.k.a. dicasteries): the Congregations and the Pontifical Councils. While the Congregations have executive powers, the Pontifical Councils do not, and are more in the background. Broadly speaking, Congregations are part of the Church’s government, while the Pontifical Council are about the presence of the Church in the world.

A possible streamlining of the Curia has been widely discussed. It seems that Benedict XVI wanted to consolidate the responsibilities of different pontifical councils. This is the reason why one of his fist moves was to make the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue part of the Pontifical Council for Culture. At the same time, he left for some time the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and that for the Pontifical Council for Migrants under the same president.

Internal pressures and opposition, the need to find a balance between his men and the «system», and the Curia’s very strong old guard headed by the former Secretary of State Angelo Sodano (still very influential, also with the press) led Benedict XVI to renounce to redesigning the Curia.

Realizing that an overall reform would take too long, Benedict XVI opted for a different approach, one attracting less attention but even more challenging: to anchor everything strongly on Doctrine,  develop a solid juridical-legal framework, and to aim for a change in attitudes.

Benedict XVI implemented the reform of the criteria of admission to seminaries; the global reform of Vatican finances; the reform of the Penal Code, which has gone into effect under Pope Francis; the new constitution of Caritas Internationalis; the motu proprio about Catholic charities; and the reform of discipline in seminaries, which are now under the administration of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Pope Francis’ project seems to be of a different kind. More than consolidating pontifical councils and thus streamlining the «consultative» dicasteries, it seems that he aims at integrating the pontifical councils within the congregations, even by elevating some pontifical councils to the rank of congregation. It is rumored that the confirmation of the leadership of some Vatican dicasteries in their posts, until the expiration of their mandates, supports this hypothesis. This is the case, for example, with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which could become a Congregation encompassing the Pontifical Council for the Family, Migrants, and the Laity.

A Congregation for the Laity (which in Maradiaga’s vision would encompass the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Academy for life, and the current Pontifical Council for the Laity) is a brand new proposal.

Commenting on it, an official of one of the dicasteries that would be interested in this possible reform told Mondyavatican that «this proposal would in fact ‘clericalize’ these dicasteries.»  A Congregation for the Laity, he adds, «would put issues relating to the family and the laity under one of the Roman Curia’s strongest type of structure. The members of congregations and pontifical councils are cardinals and bishops, rarely laymen. But giving the laity a congregation does not mean give laymen more importance within the ranks of the Church. More likely, it is about about putting the laity under one umbrella.»

The same official underscores that «lay people are very important within the ranks of dicasteries, where they oversee key portfolios and hold posts at the highest levels. Should there be a (political) will to expand the role of laymen, more of them should, above all, be made members of congregations and councils, and not just consultants in them.»

In fact, Pastor Bonus states that «the dicasteries are composed of the cardinal prefect or the presiding archbishop, a body of cardinals and of some bishops, assisted by a secretary, consultors, senior administrators, and a suitable number of officials»  (art. 3).  It also foresees that, «according to the specific nature of certain dicasteries, clerics and other faithful can be added to the body of cardinals and bishops.»

Pastor Bonus can obviously be changed. But there would also be a need to change Canon Law, which establishes that some posts are reserved for clergy only.

A brand new Pastoral Constitution to replace Pastor Bonus is in fact what the group of eight cardinals is thinking about. At the same time, Archbishop José Carballo, Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, has spoken about the possibility of reforming Canon Law. Taking the floor Oct. 29 at a conference about vocational perseverance, and speaking about religious brothers and sisters abandoning consecrated life, Carballo asserted that «there seems to be a need for a specific path for each novice,»  and also «a novitiate longer than what is contemplated in Canon Law,» to allow for better discernment.

According to canon 648 of the Code of Canon Law, the novitiate must last from a minimum of 12 months to a maximum of 2 years.

A reform of the Code could be an option, because Canon Law «is not the Gospel, it is written by men,»  Carballo said. At that point, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation, commented: «That is what Pope Francis told us.» In a conversation after his remarks, Carballo told the author of this blog that «a reform of Canon Law should not only be about the novitiate, it could also be more comprehensive.»

In fact, no reform of the Code of Canon Law is expected at this time. Perhaps in the more distance future. The new code of Canon Law was issued in 1981 after decades of work. It took 16 years to draft «Pastor Bonus»  – which was mostly a realigning of the Curia more than a revolution. The reform of the Synod of Bishops will also take some time, which is the reason why the minor adjustments of every synod are portrayed as exceptions – not changes – to the norm.

The general impression is that we are at the stage of general consultations, more or less open. The group of eight cardinals will meet Dec. 3-5, and it is possible that in February there will be a broader consultation of cardinals, maybe extending it to the members of the General Secretariat of the synod. Paul VI even thought about having the members of the General Secretary of the Synod participate in conclaves. He was dissuaded from doing so, Benny Lai reported, by Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, who thought that the members of the General Secretary of the Synod could be influenced by others. 

That of February may be a sort of mini informal council, partly corresponding to the notion of the permanent assembly that Pope Francis wishes for the Church. This sort of a reform of synodality, a concept close to the Pope’s heart.