Move clergy out of Rome to refresh the curial mindset - and to be kinder to priests

It was at one of the large Papal Masses regularly held in St Peter’s Basilica that the nature of the Roman Curia first presented itself to me. Seated with the Monsignori, I was party to the conversations around me from junior members of the Curia. They were discussing earnestly which of the curial bishops and cardinals, positioned in the more important area towards the front, were worth cultivating if you wanted to get on. It struck me that these junior officials assumed that they would spend their entire priestly careers in the Curia, and one day be seated where their superiors were. Accordingly, they had little desire to change a system in which their own future hopes were invested. There is something to be said for long-term curial postings. Expertise, in some very complex areas