All of us—especially superiors, bishops, chapter members, parish priests and lay leaders—can benefit from the wisdom of these twelve guidelines.
We all face issues of change, improvement and renewal. Persons do. Organizations, too. When we address such issues, the twelve guidelines given by the Pope to the Roman Curia can serve as practical and wise sign posts.
After all, not only is the Holy Father the head of the Catholic church. He is respected as one of the most influential world leaders today. He is known for his integrity, wisdom and closeness to the real needs and problems of people.
On December 22, 2016, the Pope addressed the Roman Curia and gave twelve guidelines for reform.
To begin with, he insists that all reform and renewal must “con-form to the Good News which must be proclaimed joyously and courageously to all, especially to the poor, the least and the outcast” and that it “must be directed in bonum et in servitium (for doing good and for service).
So, too, he says, “Permanent formation is not enough; what we need also and above all is permanent conversion and purification. Without a change of mentality, efforts at practical improvement will be in vain.”
Here are the twelve guidelines—clear, practical, challenging. We have kept the Pope’s words as they are, abbreviating some paragraphs for reasons of space. Very relevant for communities, provincial chapters and retreats. The words in italics are not in the original.
1. Individual responsibility (personal conversion): The true soul of the reform are the men and women who are part of it and make it possible. Indeed, personal conversion supports and reinforces communal conversion. There is a powerful interplay between personal and communal attitudes. A single person can bring great good to the entire body, but also bring great harm and lead to sickness. A healthy body is one that can recover, accept, reinforce, care for and sanctify its members.
2. Pastoral concern (pastoral conversion): May no one feel overlooked or mistreated, but may everyone experience the care and concern of the Good Shepherd. The efforts of all must be inspired by pastoral concern and a spirituality of service and communion, for this is the antidote to all the venoms of vain ambition and illusory rivalry. (There is a warning against becoming “a bureaucracy, pretentious and apathetic, merely legalistic and ritualistic, a training ground of concealed ambitions and veiled antagonisms.”)
3. Missionary spirit (Christocentrism): It is the chief aim of all forms of service in the Church—to bring the Good News to the ends of the earth. For “there are Church structures which can hamper efforts at evangelization, yet even good structures are only helpful when there is a life constantly driving, sustaining and assessing them. Without new life and an authentic evangelical spirit, without the Church’s fidelity to her own calling, any new structure will soon prove ineffective.”
4. Clear organization: These areas of competence must be respected, but they must also be distributed in a reasonable, efficient and productive way.
5. Improved functioning: This… demands an ongoing review of roles, the relevance of areas of competence, and the responsibilities of the personnel, and consequently of the process of reassignment, hiring, interruption of work and also promotions.
6. Modernization (updating): This involves an ability to interpret and attend to “the signs of the times.”
7. Sobriety: Here what is called for is a simplification and streamlining. (This is for greater efficiency and authentic witness.)
8. Subsidiarity: This involves the reordering of areas of competence, transferring them if necessary from one Dicastery (department) to another, in order to achieve autonomy, coordination and subsidiarity in areas of competence and effective interaction in service.
9.Synodality: (This principle involves collaboration among different departments and frequent meetings of the heads of various sections, so that they work together, not in isolation.)
10.Catholicity: Among the Officials, in addition to priests and consecrated persons, the catholicity of the Church must be reflected in the hiring of personnel from throughout the world, of permanent deacons and lay faithful carefully selected on the basis of their unexceptionable spiritual and moral life and their professional competence. It is fitting to provide for the hiring of greater numbers of the lay faithful, especially where they can be more competent than clerics or consecrated persons. Also of great importance is an enhanced role for women and lay people in the life of the Church and their integration into roles of leadership, with particular attention to multiculturalism.
11. Professionalism: Every Dicastery must adopt a policy of continuing formation for its personnel, to avoid their falling into a rut or becoming stuck in a bureaucratic routine. Likewise essential is the definitive abolition of the practice of promoveatur ut amoveatur (giving a promotion to an unsuitable person, to get rid of him/her.)
12.Gradualism (discernment): Gradualism has to do with the necessary discernment entailed by historical processes, the passage of time and stages of development, assessment, correction, experimentation, and approvals ad experimentum. In these cases, it is not a matter of indecision, but of the flexibility needed to be able to achieve a true reform.
In India, don’t we have to do much more in several of these areas, e.g., Point 10, where the Pope gives clear directions on how personnel should be chosen? Are we doing enough in appointing competent lay persons in church institutions? Are women given the importance they deserve? Are our settings truly multicultural?
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