Institutional Change Is a Good Thing

By Keith DeRouen
Daily World
April 19, 2013

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When Pope Francis set up an advisory council made up of eight Cardinals from around the world, I suspect he upset the apple cart. The advice the Holy Father is seeking centers around Curia reform. The Curia is the administrative end of the Vatican, which includes the ever-in-the-news Vatican Bank. This is exactly one month after his election that he makes yet another unprecedented move. In the Church, there is an unofficial caveat given to pastors and new administrators, “Do nothing for a year!” This Pope obviously does not believe that, nor do I.

The recent scandals that have surfaced about the administration of the Vatican are examples of what can happen when there is no transparency, and when the same people have been doing the same jobs for years and left to their own direction. Pope John Paul II wrote a document on Curia reform but nothing of substance changed. Pope Benedict XVI apparently did nothing in the area of Curia reform either except to resign, which opened up speculation about how bad things had really become in the handling of very delicate issues like money, appointments to important positions, etc., and in a lot of cases revealing a kind of nepotism in place. Not a previous Vatican insider when he was elected, this visionary Pope is not afraid to think outside the box and get other visionary people together to once again open the window to allow the fresh air of transparency, honesty and true collaboration in.

Institutions can easily become afraid of such people. Institutions can easily become resistant to change, innovation and vision. And when an institution has been around for nearly 2,000 years, the chances of those fears surfacing and patterns of turf wars and nepotism developing are very high.

The visionary person has to be sensitive to these things but not afraid to move. His approach has to be reasonable and charitable, always steady but not acting like a bull in a china shop. From my perspective Pope Francis seems to be unafraid to be himself and bring the gift that he is to the Papacy and not the other way around, trying to make himself fit into “the way it has always been done.”

Government and schools have to be careful too. For sometimes both of these institutions find themselves closed to change and only open to doing things the way they have always been done.

Change for the sake of change or for ill intention is not good. But change that is reasonable, that enhances beauty, excellence, skill, that makes peoples’ lives better — that’s the kind of change a true visionary brings about.

My Good Readers, don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions within the noble institutions to which you belong. Don’t be afraid to have a vision of what could be better within our Churches, our schools, our government. Let us pray that we always have leaders who, like Pope Francis, are unafraid to consult, to think outside the box, who can bring the uniqueness of self into the role of leader that is reasonable, charitable and fearless. And let us together ask the Holy Spirit to guide us all so that everything we do will have truth and charity as the wind beneath our wings as we soar to greater heights, growing closer and closer to God Himself.

P.S. Remember, seniors, there will be a spring dance in Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish Hall tonight from 7-10 pm. Please come and shake a leg! Admission is $5.