Pope Francis Advisory Council To Reform Church With Permanent Panel Of 8 Cardinals [View all]

[Beacool]

Source: The Huffington Post

By NICOLE WINFIELD 04/13/13



VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis marked his first month as pontiff on Saturday by naming eight cardinals from around the globe to a permanent advisory group to counsel him on running the Catholic Church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy – a bombshell announcement that indicates he intends a shift in how the papacy should function.

The panel includes only one current Vatican official; the rest are cardinals from North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia – a clear indication that Francis wants to reflect the universal nature of the church as he goes about governing.

The church is growing and counts most of the world's Catholics in the southern hemisphere while it's shrinking in Europe, yet the Vatican and the 200-strong College of Cardinals, traditionally the pope's primary advisers, remain heavily European.

In the run-up to the conclave that elected Francis the first Latin American pope one month ago, cardinals demanded the Vatican be more responsive to their needs on the ground, and said the bureaucracy itself must be overhauled. Including representatives from each continent in a permanent advisory panel to the pope would seem to go a long way toward answering those calls.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/13/pope-francis-reform-church_n_3075838.html

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I think that the Cardinals may just have made the right choice when choosing Cardinal Bergoglio as the new Pope. I wish them luck in trying to reform the Curia, it won't be easy.