reform
Vatican says bureaucratic reforms won’t happen until 2015
By Josephine McKenna — April 29, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) "There is much work ahead, so we can expect it to be done not this year but the next," said the Vatican's chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Are married priests next on Pope Francis’ reform agenda?
By David Gibson — April 25, 2014
(RNS) The issue came up in discussions between Pope Francis, an Argentine, and a churchman in Brazil, and bishops in Latin America, Africa and Asia have often been the most outspoken about the need to consider a change.
ANALYSIS: To understand Pope Francis, look to the Jesuits
By David Gibson — March 11, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Jesuits provide an all-encompassing personal and professional framework that the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio brought with him from Buenos Aires, and one that continues to shape almost everything he does as Pope Francis.
ANALYSIS: Pope Francis’ plan for reform: Convert the church
By David Gibson — March 5, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) As important as such structural reform can be, church leaders and Vatican insiders say Pope Francis is really focused on a more ambitious (and perhaps more difficult) goal: overhauling and upending the institutional culture of Catholicism.
Pope Francis overhauls Vatican finances, names Australian cardinal as comptroller
By David Gibson — February 24, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The leader of the new Secretariat for the Economy will have sweeping new powers, the most concrete step Pope Francis has taken to try to reform the church's scandal-plagued finances.
Cardinals gather in Rome as debates on church reform heat up
By David Gibson — February 19, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Anticipation is mounting for a series of closed-door discussions on Thursday and Friday, when the cardinals will hold what are expected to be frank talks about issues such as contraception, cohabitation, gay marriage and whether divorced and remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
ANALYSIS: Pope Francis’ Vatican reforms may prompt curial pushback
By David Gibson — December 16, 2013
(RNS) In private conversations, Pope Francis often acknowledges that reforming the Vatican will be a difficult task opposed by powerful interests in the church. Developments on Monday (Dec. 16) showed the challenges from within.
ANALYSIS: Meet the 4 most influential US Catholic bishops
By David Gibson — November 14, 2013
(RNS) Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, making him the public face of the American hierarchy. But in quieter ways, four other churchmen may wield more influence where it counts: with Pope Francis.
3 ways the Vatican could allow divorced Catholics back to Communion
By David Gibson — October 30, 2013
(RNS) Two-thirds of the nearly 55,000 annulments granted by Catholic Church tribunals around the world each year are in the U.S., even though American Catholics account for just 6 percent of the world’s Catholic population.
Winners and losers in the Pew Research poll on American Jews
By Menachem Wecker — October 4, 2013
(RNS) Among the winners in the new Pew Research Center poll on American Jews, the Orthodox movement and Israel. Losers include the Conservative movement.
Pope Francis fires a warning shot at church’s ‘top-down’ bureaucracy
By David Gibson — October 1, 2013
(RNS) Pope Francis made clear that a chief evil in the church was the “narcissism” of its leaders, even calling the papal court a "leprosy of the papacy."
ANALYSIS: Pope Francis stuns the church. But will it have a lasting effect?
By David Gibson — September 19, 2013
(RNS) More than detailing a list of reforms or policy change he hopes to make, Pope Francis is sketching out a pastoral vision for the church. He'll need bishops, priests and seminarians who share his views, and the type of change he envisions will take a generation or more.
Pope kicks off reform mission in meeting with Vatican department heads
By Alessandro Speciale — September 10, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis' meeting on Tuesday with the heads of all Vatican departments signals the kickoff to a reform campaign six months after he was elected with a mandate to bring the church's central bureaucracy in line.
Buoyed by a new pope, priests gather to urge church reform
By David Gibson — June 14, 2013
(RNS) The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests gathers this month to discuss an agenda for church reform. They point to support among the laity as well as inspiration from the top: Pope Francis.
Pope Francis has a long to-do list, and it starts with the Curia
By David Gibson — March 14, 2013
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Naming yourself after St. Francis of Assisi is one thing. Running the Vatican is another. And taming the Vatican bureaucracy is likely to be one of Pope Francis' most difficult assignments.
