UNITED STATES
Daily World
Monsignor Keith DeRouen
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.
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