VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The coordinator of the Group of 8 Cardinals set up by Pope Francis to advise him on the government of the Catholic Church and Reform of the Roman Curia, speaks about their task on the eve of their October 1-3 meeting
GERARD O’CONNELL
ROME
The Group of Eight Cardinals from all five continents chosen by Pope Francis to advise him on matters relating to the government of the Catholic Church and the reform of the Roman Curia will sit with him in the Vatican for their first plenary meeting from 1-3 October. They will also travel with him to Assisi on October 4, to pray at the tomb of St Francis.
It will be the Groups’ first meeting with the Pope since the Vatican announced its establishment on April 13. But there will be other meetings in the future, the Group’s coordinator, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, stated in Quebec last week, in interviews with Canada’s Catholic television channel -“Salt and Light TV”.
“There has to be a lot of discussion and a lot of discernment” about the reform of the Curia, he said; “it cannot be done in one month or two.” He predicted that “it will be a long process of discussion and discernment.”
He recalled that there have been several reforms of the Roman Curia – the papal civil service, starting way back in the 16th century. More recently, Pope Pius X carried out one at the beginning of the 20th century, and Paul VI conducted another one after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). John Paul II carried out the last such reform in 1989 and this resulted in the Constitution “Pastor Bonus” (The Good Shepherd) which formalized and codified that reform, Cardinal Maradiaga stated.
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