Vatican Diary / The new foreign minister is on the way
He will replace the Frenchman Dominique Mamberti. The overall reform of the curia is still a long way off. But in the meantime Francis is making another head roll at the congregation for the clergy, from which he has already removed Cardinal Piacenza
In the middle of September the council of cardinals instituted by Francis to help him in the reform of the Roman curia and the governance of the universal Church will meet again at the Vatican.
It will be the sixth meeting of the body now made up of nine cardinals, after to the eight appointed at the time of its creation by the pontiff he added - but without any other formal public act so far - cardinal secretary of state Pietro Parolin.
Also known are the dates of the two subsequent sessions, which will be held from December 9-11 of this year and from February 9-11 of 2015.
The work of the “C9” concerning the reform of the Roman curia seems to be still in the preliminary phase. “There are no draft versions of the new apostolic constitution,” Vatican “spokesman” Fr. Federico Lombardi said at the end of the fifth meeting in early July. Adding that “the pace is stable, but more time is needed.”
In the meantime, however, the reigning bishop of Rome is not just twiddling his thumbs with appointments in the curia in its current makeup.
Last August 28, he made the cardinal prefect of the congregation for divine worship, the Spaniard Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the new archbishop of Valencia, one of the most dynamic dioceses of the Iberian Church. An unusual move, which does have as a precedent that of Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, whom Benedict XVI transferred to Naples from his role as prefect of Propaganda Fide. With the difference that, unlike what happened in this latter case, it seems that with Cañizares the pope did not “impose” the transfer, but simply facilitated the cardinal's desire to return to his country as a pastor. The fact that in his heart Cañizares would have preferred Madrid over Valencia as a destination is another story.
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