Pope Leo's Curial Restoration
How Pope Leo XIV Is Quietly Restoring the Roman Curia By: Serre Verweij
Pope Leo’s curial appointments are speeding up. In short succession he has appointed bishop Anthony Randazzo from Australia as the new Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, Archbishop Paolo Rudelli as the new second in command (Substitute for General Affairs) of the Secretariat of State and Archbishop Petar Rajič as the new Prefect of the Papal Household. All three prelates are conservative to various extents. Rudelli crucially replaces the scandal ridden Peña Parra, who has been made Nuncio to Italy. Pope Leo is making the Curia his and making it more orthodox again.
The Curia has been the most hated institution amongst modernist and heretics for many centuries. It is an extension of the Pope’s office, more than of his person, and stands for tradition, continuity and reigning in heresies. It tends to pressure Popes to act when they are wavering or correct them when they are wrong. During and after the Second Vatican Council, attacks on the Curia flared up again. Progressive pro-contraception cardinals such as Leo Suenes from Belgium launched scathing attacks. In the final years of Pope Paul VI, the beleaguered institution was one of the few sources of clarity. Under John Paul II it (along with the Church) saw somewhat of a return to normalcy. Pope Benedict XVI built on this and intentionally kept virtually all of John Paul II’s curial figures in office to emphasize continuity. It was dissidents such as Walter Kasper and the other German bishops who kept challenging the Curia and promoting heresy.
Once Francis was elected, he enabled the dissidents, attacked the Curia, bypassed it, and eventually filled selective dicasteries with favourites who could then browbeat orthodox local bishops, even in violation of canon law. Meanwhile, promised anti-corruption reforms in the Vatican went nowhere.
Pope Leo almost instantly pushed the exact opposite message. ‘Popes come and go, the Curia remains’ was what he said to the Curia almost immediately after he was elected. This indicated a paradigm shift from Francis and Pope Leo has only doubled on it since. His Christmas address to the Curia was far kinder than Francis’ yearly tirades. Will he restore the Curia to its proper place of ensuring magisterial continuity? Will he make it stable again? Will he keep appointing orthodox prelates to govern it?
A Gradual Return to Order
Pope Leo has refrained from denigrating the authority of the Curia in alleged private conversations (that then leak) or bypassing them for key documents, both in contrast to Francis. At the same time, Pope Leo has not been weak. He affirmed all prefects and secretaries in office provisionally after he became Pope, making it clear he could replace any or all of them, eventually. It meant that he started his pontificate with a de facto state of emergency in the Curia, where he respected the institution, but not necessarily the people Francis filled it with. He even left the Dicastery for Bishops without a new prefect for months, de facto continuing to lead it himself.
