María Montserrat Alvarado's appointment to lead the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication raises questions about the relationship between ecclesiastical governance and Holy Orders. Writing on X.com on June 2, Spanish diocesan priest and theology professor Jaime Mercant Simó argued that, at a theological level, it is not appropriate for even a theologically less importat dicastery, such as the Dicastery for Communication, to be headed by a layperson. Rev. Mercant noted that the Roman Curia is not merely an administrative structure. Every prefect of a dicastery acts with “vicarious power” in the name of the pope. “Mrs. Alvarado will exercise effective administrative jurisdiction and will have, albeit in an internal manner, real power over the bishops, priests, and religious who work in that dicastery,” he wrote. He argued that the appointment represents a separation between the power of governance and Holy Orders, from which the Church's munus regendi (“office of governance”), …More
Post-conciliar Church suffers from the Schroedinger cat syndrome. It is at the same time dead and alive. Dead because it abandoned the life-giving Catholic Faith and the dose of heterodoxy is lethal. Alive - because it has not been officially condemned yet by the Holy Catholic Church.