THE CHIEF representative for Europe on the the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals (C8) has revealed that structuring collegiality according to Vatican II teaching was the most important subject discussed at the inaugural C8 meeting, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising told KNA news agency that the need to reform and change the mentality of the Roman Curia had also been central to the talks when the C8 met earlier this month.
“The council wanted more cooperation in the Church, greater collegiality of the bishops among each other and with the Pope. That is why we discussed the subject of synods as Pope Francis wants to convene a synod as early as next year,” Cardinal Marx explained.
An extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops has been called for 5-19 October 2014 to discuss issues related to the family.
Bishops from all over the world had written to Rome criticising the way synods had worked up to now, he said, and that would not do. “Synods need more interaction. There must be more discussion between the bishops and the Pope rather than bishops just making statements,” Cardinal Marx said.
As for reform of the Curia, its entire mentality was going to have to change, and a crucial agent would be the appointment to the Curia of greater numbers of laypeople, particularly women, the cardinal said. “A few cosmetic changes” would certainly not suffice to change the Curia’s mentality, he said. “We will have to undertake a basic analysis. What is it there for? It mustn’t be a wall between the Pope and the bishops. It has a service function for the Pope and the World Church and must become a learning organisation.”
A new spirit of trust between the Curia and the bishops was called for and also a climate of open discussion, he explained. “That means mentalities will have to change, including ours in Germany, and that will take years.”
Asked if the Curia had the necessary personnel for such changes, Marx said: “More laity are required, particularly more women. And we’ll have to work at educating the personnel so that this new mentality, this awareness of being a service, is palpable.”
The Council of Cardinals had also discussed the proposed new function of a “Curia moderator”. Should this not be the Secretary of State, Marx was asked.
The cardinal explained that the figure of a moderator would make sense as someone who coordinated talks between the Pope and the heads of the dicasteries and also coordinated the “cabinet discussions” of all the dicasteries. One problem was that in the past the impression had always been given that the State Secretariat was a sort of “super-ministry” and the man at its head a “Vice Pope”. “That just must not be. The State Secretariat is the Pope’s secretariat. That is why ‘state’ is the wrong term here. The Secretariat is not there to control the dicasteries either. Unlike diocesan bishops, the Pope doesn’t have a vicar general. He talks to the heads of the dicasteries,” Marx explained.
The question of remarried divorcees that was to have been discussed at the C8 meeting had been postponed until the special synod next year, which would deal with pastoral work for families as a whole, Marx said.
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