Pope Francis has church reform on his mind

In homily to Caritas the pope denounces 'cult of efficiency' and calls for courage to let go and humility to listen

Pope Francis gives his general audience at the Vatican on May 22. (Photo: Maria Laura Antonelli/Photoshot/MAXPPP)

Published May 24, 2019.

When Pope Francis is at the point of finalizing a major document, he tends to speak about its theme and give clues to its contents in the days and weeks before the text is actually released.

We initially realized this — though only in hindsight — after the pope gave his first major interview some months after his election as bishop of Rome. It consisted of a series of conversations with his Jesuit confrere, Father Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of La Civiltà Cattolica. And it was a blockbuster.

Francis explained his vision for the Church and spoke about what would be the main priorities of his papal ministry. Much of what he said in those conversations with Spadaro in August 2013 — and then repeated in many of his speeches and homilies in the following weeks — ended up being published in a more systematic and official way a few months later in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium. This is the document that Francis continues to call the most important of his pontificate.

A similar thing happened during the preparation of the encyclical Laudato si'. In the weeks preceding the July 2015 release of this major treatise on our grave responsibility to "care for our common home" (that is, God's creation), the pope began speaking about what we would eventually read in the pages of the encyclical.

A preview of Roman Curia reform

And now, more recently, the pope has been talking about organizational reform. And it makes one wonder if the things he's been saying are, perhaps, some of the things we will find in Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel), the forthcoming apostolic constitution on reforming and restructuring the Roman Curia.

The final draft of the document (and I would emphasize that it is only a draft) is now complete. It took the pope's Council of Cardinals more than five years of study and discernment to complete it. The cardinal advisers also involved top officials of the Roman Curia during the process, mainly through regular consultations over the course of these nearly half-dozen years.

Most people thought that would be the end of the process. The only thing left would be to have the canon lawyers and doctrinal wizards make sure everything was tidied up for the pope's signature.

But that was not Pope Francis' plan. Instead, he decided to give the draft document to people outside of the curia and some even far away from Rome — bishops' conferences around the world, the heads of religious orders and certain theologians at pontifical universities.

And although two members of the Council of Cardinals (Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga and Oswald Gracias) have insisted that no major changes should be expected from this latest round of review, I would not bet one cent on that.

Reforming the curia will be Francis' most ambitious — and probably most controversial — act of structural church reform so far. If you were a reformer pope, would you allow the people in the very bureaucracy you are trying to change have the last word? And if you were going to make some really controversial changes — which Francis probably will — would you tip off one of the Church's institutions most infamous for opposing and derailing reform?

Is the pope already preaching about Praedicate Evangelium?

The 82-year-old pope can (and likely will) make further changes to the text of Praedicate Evangelium based on the suggestions he receives (or supposedly receives) from church leaders outside the Roman Curia. It will take a bit of time to incorporate the modifications unless, of course, they are already part of a final text that has already been prepared.

It is a good wager that whatever gets published will be different, and probably in some major ways, from the current draft. And although Cardinals Rodriguez and Gracias say they are hoping the final document will be ready for publication by the end of June, people close to the process have quietly confirmed that it's not likely.

Pope Francis has already made a number of structural changes to the curia in the span of these past six years. For instance, he's combined some offices and instead of categorizing them as pontifical councils, congregations or commissions, he has simply called them dicasteries (that's churchspeak for offices).

So goodbye to the old congregations and pontifical councils. We should expect to see all curia departments to be called dicasteries under the new reform

The pope has not given many clues about other structural changes, but he has talked an awful lot about the premises, philosophy and reasoning behind his planned reform. The above-mentioned cardinals said they are spelled out in the prologue of the apostolic constitution.

But in the last few weeks Francis has also touched on some of them in a number of major addresses. One of them was on May 9 when he spoke to Rome's diocesan assembly at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

In speaking about church renewal and reform, he denounced what he called the "dictatorship of functionalism" and the propensity to want to "fix" things and over-organize everything. The pope even took to task an unnamed diocese in Italy for doing exactly this.

In all things charity

The pope's word at the Lateran seemed to confuse some readers. One wrote: "I need a further explanation of what the bishop of Rome is saying about not fixing things. Does he mean not to do anything about the status quo? Surely not, but what?"

Francis must have heard similar comments. Because on May 23 he continued to speak about reform in a homily at the opening Mass for the general assembly of Caritas Internationalis.

He warned against "the temptation of efficiency-ism," which he described as thinking all is well if the Church "has everything under control" and there are no disruptions, "the agenda always in order" and "everything is regulated."

But the pope said the Lord doesn't work this way. Rather, he sends the Holy Spirit. And instead of bringing "the order of the day," the Spirit "comes with fire."

"Jesus doesn't want the Church to be a perfect little model that is content with how it organizes itself and is able to defend its good name," Francis said.

He then echoed what he said at the Lateran, saying that it makes him suffer to see dioceses "that wear themselves out through organization and planning, trying to make everything clear" and taken care of.

The pope said Jesus' life was not like that. It was a journey that did not fear the disruptions of life. And his Gospel is the Church's program. "It teaches us that questions aren't addressed with a ready-made recipe and that faith isn't a schedule, but a 'Way' (Acts 9:2), to follow together, always together, with a spirit of trust," he said.

The courage to let go… even of traditions

Pope Francis was preaching on the passage in Acts where the apostles make the painful decision not to impose their longstanding Jewish traditions on converts from paganism.

He said it took courage to let go of some of these "important religious traditions and precepts," adding that this threatened the Jewish-Christians' "religious identity." Instead, the apostles discerned that "proclaiming the Lord comes first and is worth more than everything else" – including "those human convictions and traditions that are more of an obstacle than a help."

This will be a concept some will have to ponder very carefully when the pope decides some convictions and traditions that have long been a part of the Roman Curia are no longer helpful to the Church's mission.

They will also have to reflect on many other things Pope Francis preached in his homily to the people of Caritas Internationalis. For instance, "God purifies, simplifies and often makes one grow by taking away, not by adding … To follow the Lord, it's necessary to walk fast and, to walk fast, it's necessary to lighten oneself, even if that costs … In reforming ourselves we must avoid window-dressing, namely, pretending to change something while in reality nothing changes…"

The humility to listen

Curia officials — those who man what has long been the Church's centralized bureaucracy — will also want to think over the pope's words about listening humbly to the voices of those many in Rome have traditionally considered as less powerful or in insignificant places.

"Humility is born when, instead of talking, one listens, when one ceases to be at the center. Then it grows through humiliations. It's the way of humble service, which Jesus followed," said Francis.

"It's always important to listen to the voice of all, especially of the little ones and the least. In the world those who have more means speak more, but among us it can't be that way," the pope warned. These very words could be in the prologue of Praedicate Evangelium!

"God loves to reveal Himself through the little ones and those who are least. And he asks that no one look down upon anyone," the pope continued.

"From the humility of listening to the courage of renunciation, all passes through the charism of the whole. In fact, in the discussion of the early Church, unity always prevailed over differences."

His message here is that there is certainly room for a variety way of doing things, that one group or place (including the Vatican) cannot control everything and everyone.

He said charity "doesn't create uniformity but communion."

"Jesus asks that we abide in Him, not in our ideas; to come out of the pretense of controlling and managing," the pope said.

Pope Francis repeated that followers of Christ must not fear disruptions. He used the Italian word scosse, which can also mean shocks, tremors or jolts.

This and all that he's been saying in the past few weeks — and throughout his pontificate, actually — could be a message to those who believe the reform of the Roman Curia will contain only cosmetic changes. They would do well to listen a bit more carefully and prepare for at least a few unforeseen scosse.