The new head of the Vatican Congregation for Laity, Family and Life is an American whose appointment is part of Pope Francis’ attempts to increase the US representation in Rome. His pastoral experience will be needed to deal with some of the Church’s most neuralgic issues

“I  think bishops need to pay attention to their pastoral councils, we need to listen to people    from different walks of life,” says Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas, referring to the diocesan advisory boards many bishops have created in the US. “They have their own ideas that those of us sitting in the chancery wouldn’t even think of.” It is sentiments such as these that caused Pope Francis to name Farrell to lead a new “super” dicastery that will focus on marriage, family and the laity.

The new dicastery, established by Francis in a motu proprio entitled Sedula Mater (“Like a diligent mother”), is part of a reorganisation of the Vatican Curia discussed by the Pope’s Council of Cardinals. It brings together two distinct pontifical councils, one on the laity and one on the family. (The Pontifical Academy for Life will continue, and Pope Francis named Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia to lead it.) Bishop Farrell “has the administrative talent, the linguistic ability and, most important, the pastoral vision of Pope Francis”, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, a member of the Council of Cardinals, told The Tablet.