The chair of the committee of cardinals charged with reforming the
Vatican curia said that the current system is over, and it is time for
something different.
As a result, the reform will not come quickly but
will require "long discussion and long discernment."
Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga responded to questions about the curial reform process in a wide-ranging interview with Basilian Father Thomas Rosica of Salt and Light Television in
Canada.
Cardinal Rodríguez is chair of the committee
of eight cardinals who were appointed by Pope Francis to advise him on
reforming the curia.
The cardinals met in Rome for the first time
October 1-3.
Cardinal Rodríguez also revealed that, within four days of his
election, the pope had already decided on Archbishop Pietro Parolin as
his secretary of state even though the announcement did not come until
the end of August.
Cardinal Rodríguez said that his committee has received suggestions
from all over the world, 80 pages of suggestions from Latin American
alone.
"We have put them together around the main themes," he reports.
"There is convergence in many of the main subjects so we can say that it
is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not ours. You cannot have
millions of Catholics in the world suggesting the same unless the Holy
Spirit is inspiring."
It is going to be a long process of discussion and discernment because "It is not just taking the constitution Pastor Bonus
and trying to change this and that," referring to the 1988 papal
constitution governing the organization of the Roman curia.
"No, that
constitution is over," he said. "Now it is something different. We need
to write something different."