Pope Begins Vatican Overhaul

By Stacy Meichtry
The Wall Street Journal
April 15, 2013

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324240804578420710330497342.html

Pope Francis arrived on Sunday for Mass at a basilica in Rome.

Cardinals at the Vatican this week

[with video]

In his first major move as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis on Saturday appointed a panel of cardinals from around the world to advise him in overhauling the Roman Curia, the scandal-plagued administrative body of the Vatican. On Sunday, he followed that up by telling priests to practice what they preach.

The Vatican on Saturday said eight cardinals—ranging from Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston to Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay—will be responsible for drawing up a plan to revise the Curia's constitution. That document defines the roles and reporting lines within Vatican central administration, determining how the pope governs his 1.2 billion-strong flock in matters including Roman Catholic doctrine, bishop appointments and Vatican finances.

Sunday during a Mass in Rome, Pope Francis said ordinary Catholics need to "see in our actions what they hear from our lips."

"Inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the church's credibility," he said.

The announcement of the panel marked the opening salvo of a papacy that many cardinals and rank-and-file Catholics expect to introduce sweeping reforms. Over the past year, the Curia has become the center of numerous controversies that began with the theft of papal documents by the butler of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI; soared amid infighting among Vatican cardinals; and culminated with Benedict XVI's resignation, the first in 600 years.

By taking on the powerful Curia just one month into his pontificate, Pope Francis is steering straight into the eye of the storm. The Catholic Church is beset with problems world-wide that the creaky centuries-old Curia has struggled to face down.

In Latin America, Catholicism's most populous region, the church is running up against competition from newer evangelical ministries that have made inroads with the urban poor. In China, regarded by many Vatican officials as the next frontier in Catholic evangelization, millions of faithful have been forced underground as Beijing cultivates its own state-sanctioned church, beyond the control of the papacy.

In the West, the church is saddled with a sexual-abuse crisis that has undercut the credibility of church hierarchy. The disillusionment runs deep in Europe, where practicing Catholics are dwindling amid a rise in secularism and governments that legislate without regard for church teaching. On Friday, France's Parliament approved a bill that aims to legalize same-sex marriage, which the Vatican strongly opposes.

In the run-up to the conclave that elected Pope Francis, cardinals from around the world plunged into an unusually frank debate over how to fix the Curia. Many church officials believe its powers were too centralized under Pope Benedict XVI, who delegated most of his administrative authority to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state. Some cardinals say Cardinal Bertone's office should be broken up while others think top Vatican cardinals need to set up more transparent channels of communication.

Another key issue is what to do with the Vatican bank, which has been a repeated source of scandal for the Holy See. The bank is implementing overhauls aimed at shedding light on opaque financial practices that have alarmed international regulators.

The naming of the advisory panel Saturday "shows that the Holy Father listens attentively to the suggestions of the College of Cardinals—his closest collaborators," Vatican aide Rev. Thomas Rosica wrote in an email. Father Rosica said the pope considered the formation of the group a follow-up to the pre-conclave discussions.

The geographical makeup of the new advisory group is also a sign of Pope Francis' goal of turning the church's focus outward. In a speech to cardinals before his election, the then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio warned his colleagues that the church hierarchy had become too inward-looking, focusing on its inner life rather than the problems of its flock.

The new advisory group will be coordinated by Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. During the papal election, Cardinal Maradiaga was a leading proponent for Cardinal Bergoglio's election as pope, according to people familiar with the matter.

Nearly all of the cardinals advising Pope Francis on the administrative overhaul come from local archdioceses far from the insular world of Vatican politics. Only one member, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, comes from inside Vatican City. But the office he currently runs, the Governerato in charge of administering the actual grounds of the world's smallest state, isn't considered part of the Curia.

The group, which doesn't have legislative power, is scheduled to meet in early October, the Vatican said, adding that the pope was "currently in contact" with the cardinals.