What is the Roman Curia for?
Every Pope tries to reform and adapt the administrative institutions of the Holy See to respond more effectively to the signs of the times, but few have attempted a more revolutionary reset of its purpose and mission than the current successor of St Peter.
I did not know much about the Roman Curia and its internal ordering until 2016, when I was asked to work in the Secretariat of State. I had just finished my first year of studies in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. I had of course heard the rumours of laziness and infighting, and I was aware of the temptation (especially on the part of journalists) to see the Curia – the complex of officials and institutions based in the Vatican which helps the Pope take forward the work of the Church – as pitted against the Pope.
Although I had a rich experience of Catholicism from my upbringing in Umudike, Nigeria – I was ordained a priest for the diocese of Umuahia – and in Australia, where I completed my priestly formation, studied for a doctorate at Australian Catholic University and served as a priest in the Brisbane archdiocese for more than four years – I did not know what I was going to encounter. As for most Catholics, the workings of the Curia were something of a mystery to me.
The bold reforms set out in Pope Francis’ apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium (“Preach the Gospel”) in 2022, after several years of preparation, have reawakened interest in the Roman Curia, especially in connection with papal authority. Canon 331 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that the Pope possesses “supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely”. But as Pope Francis said early in his papacy, a pope is neither a superman nor a star, but laughs, cries, sleeps calmly and has friends like everyone else. He is a normal person who needs the help of others to do his job – which in his case, is to be chief pastor of the universal Church. And that’s what the Curia is for.
Pope Francis was ordained a priest four years after the closing ceremony of the Second Vatican Council. He does not regularly cite the Council explicitly, but the Council’s ecclesiology and theological insights have been the backdrop to his papacy. This is seen most obviously in the seriousness with which he has taken the theological principles of “communion”, “mission”, “synodality” and “subsidiarity” in his attempt to transform the Roman Curia.
Francis made it clear in Praedicate Evangelium that he wants the Curia to deepen its commitment to becoming what he insists it is: a structure that assists the Pope in his relationship of communion with his brother bishops and with all the faithful. He intends the Curia to redouble its efforts to make his spiritual and pastoral closeness felt in local Churches and parishes throughout the world. Every successor of Peter tries to reform and adapt the Roman Curia to respond more effectively to the signs of the times; few have attempted a more revolutionary reset of its purpose and mission than the current Pope.
Communion with God is also essential to the Pope’s efforts. His emphasis on communion as the chief task of the Roman Curia is linked to another reality that is at the heart of the Church’s self-understanding: mission. It is no surprise that the document with which he launched his radical reform is given the title “Preach the Gospel”, underlining the evangelising and missionary outlook of the Church. He is determined to make the Curia more outward-facing, and to help him to emphasise that the outward mission of the Church is lived by every Christian. Francis wants every institution in the Church to advance the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion so that, as he declared in the first major document of his papacy, “the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation” (Evangelii Gaudium). A growing communion is the mission of the Church.
Another important theological insight that the Pope continues from Vatican II is synodality. Synodality is the process of walking or journeying together as a community of the faithful and as God’s flock along the paths of history toward the encounter with Christ the Lord. As the Pope once said, a synodal Church is “a Church which listens, which realises that listening ‘is more than simply hearing’. It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn. The faithful people, the College of Bishops, the Bishop of Rome: all listening to each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spirit of truth’ (John 14:17), in order to know what he ‘says to the Churches’ (Revelation 2:7).”
Reform is carried out within the context of communion through mutual dialogue in the Spirit. Aspects of this synodality are reflected in the provision made in Praedicate Evangelium to ensure that members and officials of the Roman Curia are appointed from different parts of the world and that “each person’s diligence fosters the building up of an orderly and effective functioning, which transcends cultural, linguistic, and national differences”. Synodality in the Roman Curia is also, and more importantly, reflected in the regular, systematic, and more productive meetings within and between dicasteries – the new name the Pope has given to the Vatican offices formerly known as “congregations” — as well as meetings of the various institutions of the Roman Curia with the Church at various levels. Francis’ hope is that synodality will be evident not only in the work of each dicastery but also in the life of the Church as a whole. This explains the chief reason for the Synod on Synodality.
Subsidiarity, on the other hand, serves as the principle by which to regulate competencies between individuals and communities and between smaller and larger communities. The principle of subsidiarity requires that all communities not only permit, but enable and encourage, individuals to exercise their own self-responsibility and that larger communities do the same for smaller ones. Subsidiarity is a principle consistently recognised in the social teaching of the Church. It is a principle that states that the central organs of government should not intervene unnecessarily at the local levels and that decisions, activities and issues that can be resolved at a lower level should not be taken to a higher one. Francis adopted this principle and used it to reorder certain Curial institutions and their areas of competence, in order to achieve autonomy, unity, interdependence or interaction and coordination in service among them.
Moreover, Praedicate Evangelium makes a significant provision for the laity’s greater participation in the Church. One groundbreaking innovation is the role of lay people in the internal ordering of the Roman Curia, particularly regarding their exercise of the power of governance. The fifth Principle and Criteria for the Service of the Roman Curia states: “Each curial institution carries out its proper mission by virtue of the power it has received from the Roman Pontiff, in whose name it operates with vicarious power in the exercise of his primatial munus. For this reason, any member of the faithful can preside over a Dicastery or Office, depending on the power of governance and the specific competence and function of the Dicastery or Office in question.”
This is a concrete confirmation of what is established in article 10 of Praedicate Evangelium, which emphasises that the Pope, the bishops, and other ordained ministers are not the sole evangelisers in the Church. As Vatican II reminded us, ordained clergy were not established by Christ to “undertake by themselves the entire saving mission of the Church to the world” (Lumen Gentium, 30). However, since the issue of the power of governance and its exercise by laypeople remains a debated theological and canonical question, I believe that it is both a challenge and an opportunity that can be understood only in openness to the action of the Spirit. The reach of the Holy Spirit’s action has never been limited to any human measure or imagination. It always comes as an abundance.
My nearly eight years (and counting!) in the Roman Curia has changed my life. It has exploded many of the familiar canards and blown sky-high a lot of the myths. I have crossed paths with countless priests, bishops, Religious and lay men and women who are quietly and effectively committed to their service to the Holy Father. They are not faceless functionaries; instead, they are women and men of remarkable human qualities and considerable intellect, who are committed to papal service. My experience has deepened my priestly commitment. I have been able to join my priestly identity and mission, often in subtle, hidden and humble ways, to the Holy Father’s solicitude and participation in the joys and hopes, the pains and sorrows of the women and men of the human family.
When I was asked to teach a course in a university in Belgium on the Roman Curia a few years ago, I realised that, at least in the anglophone world, there was no study of its history, theology and organisation that would bring the story up to date. Why not write it, I thought? As Soren Kierkegaard said: “We live our lives forwards, but we understand it backwards.” It is only in retrospect that we will be able to fully understand and appreciate the depth of Pope Francis’ reform.
My hope is that every reader of The Roman Curia – whether a seminarian, ambassador, journalist, academic, professor or student of theology and Canon Law – will understand Pope Francis’ reform as making clear that communion and mission are the chief tasks of the Roman Curia, with synodality and subsidiarity as its operating principles.
Anthony Ekpo is Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in the Roman Curia. He is also visiting professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and an adjunct professor of the Australian Catholic University. The Roman Curia: History, Theology and Organization is published by Georgetown University Press (£72 HB; £24 PB, Tablet price £64.80; £21.60).
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