Pope Francis (ANSA)
By Andrea Tornielli
March 22 2022
The priority of evangelization and the role of the laity are the primary ideas that connect the new Apostolic Constitution governing the Roman Curia with the Second Vatican Council.
The Apostolic Constitution Praedicate evangelium, which will govern the Roman Curia, was published on Saturday, 19 March.
The text puts into a systematic form the path of reform that originated in the discussions prior to the 2013 conclave, and which have already largely been implemented over the last nine years.
It is a document that deepens and makes effective the guidelines of the Second Vatican Council, which had as its original aim precisely the answer to the great question of how to proclaim the Gospel in a time of change that would ultimately prove to be – as Pope Francis often stresses – a change of era.
The unification into a single dicastery, led directly by the Pope, of the ancient and highly-structured Congregation Propaganda Fide (also known as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) and the relatively-new Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation indicates the priority given to evangelization expressed in the document right from the title.
How can we bear witness to the beauty of the Christian faith to the new generations that do not speak or understand the old languages? How can we ensure that the yeast of the Gospel returns to leaven the dough both of societies that were once Christian and of those that do not yet know Jesus Christ?
The Church that engages in dialogue in order to evangelize has been the leitmotif of recent pontificates, and now this aspect is also being further emphasized in the structure of the Roman Curia.
The Curia is not an organism that acts in its own name, a “power” of government over the local Churches, but rather a structure at the service of the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, which acts in his name, on his instructions, exercising a “vicarious” power with regard to that of the Vicar of Christ.
