Francis Decentralizes the Church: More Power to Bishops' Conferences

By Andrea Tornielli
The Vatican Insider
November 25, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/francesco-francis-francisco-30115/

Bishops

One paragraph of the Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” announces changes and a “conversion of the papacy”: “Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach”

It is only a short paragraph but it announces  significant changes to the papacy as well as decentralization and more power to Bishops’ Conferences. In section 32 of the document published today, Francis refers to the “pastoral conversion” he is asking the Church to undergo and writes: “Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of others, I too must think about a conversion of the papacy.”

“It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of evangelization,” Francis adds. In the document, the Pope recalls that in the encyclical “Ut unum sint” (1995), John Paul II asked for help in finding “a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to anew situation.” But, Francis remarks, “we have made little progress in this regard.” “The papacy and the central structures of the universal Church also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion. The Second Vatican Council stated that, like the ancient patriarchal Churches, Episcopal conferences are in a position “to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit.”

“Yet this desire has not been fully realized, since a juridical status of Episcopal Conferences which would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated. Excessive centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach,” the Pope remarks.

So one of the areas of reform that should be examined by the Pope’s eight-member advisory Council of Cardinals is the desire for Episcopal Conferences to play a greater role in Church decision-making. The 1985 Synod of Bishops had recommended a wider and more in depth examination of the theological and juridical status of the Bishops’ Conferences, particularly the issue  of their doctrinal authority.

The Code of Canon Law currently attributes certain doctrinal responsibilities to the Episcopal Conferences, like publishing catechisms for their respective territories with the prior approval of the Apostolic See and the approval of various editions and versions of Holy Scripture texts. In the Motu Proprio “Apostolos suos” issued in 1998, John Paul II recalled that Episcopal Conferences should be considered within the framework of the entire College of Bishops and that they are not a collegial body of the government of particular Churches, neither do they act as intermediaries between individual bishops and the whole College of Bishops.

Now Francis says he wants to take one more step towards decentralization. He had alluded to this in his interview with Italian Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica: “The dicasteries of the Roman Curia are at the service of the pope and the bishops,” he says. “They must help both the particular churches and the bishops’ conferences. They are instruments of help. In some cases, however, when they are not functioning well, they run the risk of becoming institutions of censorship. It is amazing to see the denunciations for lack of orthodoxy that come to Rome. I think the cases should be investigated by the local bishops’ conferences, which can get valuable assistance from Rome. These cases, in fact, are much better dealt with locally. The Roman congregations are mediators; they are not middlemen or managers.”

This offers a glimpse of the Pope’s plan for the reform of the Roman Curia: to reduce bureaucracy, streamline it and above all, make it an instrument that serves the Pope and the local Churches and not a central government body. To do this, he plans to transfer more power from the centre to local Episcopates as well as merge existing dicasteries.