Plans submitted for new Vatican laity and justice office

Feb 19, 2016

VATICAN: Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals has submitted a final proposal for the creation of two new Vatican “dicasteries” or offices that will deal with laity and justice issues.

Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, announced the recommendations for the new Laity-Family-Life and Justice-Peace-Migration dicasteries, following the latest meeting of the Council of Cardinals, also known as the G9 owing to the number of its members, Vatican Radio reports.

During the meeting, which was attended by Pope Francis, the cardinals also discussed the theme of “synodality” and Pope Francis’ call, at last year’s Synod of Bishops, for the Church to move towards “a healthy decentralization,” Fr Lombardi said.

Pope Francis’ call for “a healthy decentralization“ of Church structures constituted “an important reference point for the work of the reform of the Curia,” the Vatican spokesman added.

The new dicasteries have been under development since 2014, according to the Catholic News Agency.

Fr Lombardi said the G9 cardinals are still in the throes of discussing planned reforms for two other dicasteries: the Secretariat of State and the Congregation for Divine Worship. He defined this as “a work in progress.”

In other news, Pope Francis appointed new heads to two of the three departments forming the new Secretariat for Communications.

The director of the new theological-pastoral department of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications is Natasha Govekar, a Slovenian theologian who specializes in the communication of faith through images, Catholic News Service says.

The Pope also named Francesco Masci, a 37-year-old official at the Vatican Internet Office, to direct the secretariat’s technical office. -- Global Pulse