Roman Curia reform one brush-stroke at a time

The Argentine pope has been tenacious in his efforts to bring about reform and renewal in the Church. He’s probably been more successful at changing p

Jan 05, 2018

By Robert Mickens
The Argentine pope has been tenacious in his efforts to bring about reform and renewal in the Church. He’s probably been more successful at changing perceptions and attitudes — call it the overall Catholic ethos, if you will — among the vast array of believers (and non-believers) around the world. But changing the mindset and workings of the Roman Curia? Probably not so much.

He has identified at least three types of obstructionists.

First, there are those who foment an “unbalanced and debased mindset of plots and small cliques.” He said that “for all their selfjustification and good intentions” they are, in fact, part of “a cancer leading to a self-centredness that also seeps into ecclesiastical bodies and, in particular, those working in them”.

Second, there are “those who betray the trust put in them and profiteer from the Church’s motherhood.” Here it is worth quoting the Pope in full:

“I am speaking of persons carefully selected to give a greater vigour to the body and to the reform, but – failing to understand the lofty nature of their responsibility – let themselves be corrupted by ambition or vainglory. Then, when they are quietly sidelined, they wrongly declare themselves martyrs of the system, of a ‘pope kept in the dark’, of the ‘old guard’…, rather than reciting a mea culpa.”

The third type of obstructionists Francis identified are those working in the curia “to whom all the time in the world is given to get back on the right track, in the hope that they find in the Church’s patience an opportunity for conversion and not for personal advantage”.

Even if it takes one small brush stroke at a time, Francis has shown that he is determined to continue moving tenaciously to reform the Church. He’s tried to be sensitive to those who are unsettled by the reforms, as long as they are not actively working against him. And, up to now, he’s also been extremely patient with those who are doing little to help.--LCI (international.la-croix.com)

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