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REFORM-CURIA Mar-13-2006 (1,050 words) With graphic posted Feb. 8 and photo March 13. xxxi
Pope temporarily merges four Vatican councils under two presidents
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At the start of what may be a sweeping reform of the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict XVI merged the leadership of four of the Vatican's councils under two presidents.
The Vatican announced March 11 that French Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, also would serve as the interim president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and that Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, temporarily would head the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers.
The Vatican announced that the pope accepted the retirement of the head of the migrants' council, Japanese Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, who turned 76 March 9. To fill the vacancy, the pope united "for the time being" the presidency of the office with that of justice and peace.
Cardinal Poupard's assignment as president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue filled a post made vacant after the pope Feb. 15 named its former head, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, to be the new ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League.
The pope decided "in order to favor a more intense dialogue between people of culture and members of various religions," to unite "for the time being, the presidency of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue with that of the Pontifical Council for Culture," the Vatican said in a written statement.
Cardinal Poupard said he was surprised by his appointment, especially since he is 75, the age when bishops must submit their resignations. But "I obeyed and thanked the Holy Father for his benevolence and trust," the cardinal told Vatican Radio March 11.
The cardinal said the pope sees an "intrinsic link between the intercultural and interreligious dimensions." He recalled a speech the pope made during a meeting with Muslims Aug. 20 in Cologne, Germany, when he told the president of the Turkish Muslim Union that "interreligious and intercultural dialogue is a vital necessity."
The pope alone has the authority to makes changes in the Roman Curia, the church's central administrative offices; he can name a new person to head an office, create a new office or merge existing offices.
Rumors had circulated for months that Pope Benedict would implement changes to trim the Curia, which, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he often described as being overly bureaucratic.
As then-Cardinal Ratzinger, a top curial official, he once said there should be "an unlimited examination of conscience at all levels of the church" to see what structures should be reformed so that "the authentic face of the church shows through once again."
During a Sept. 1, 1990, gathering with members of the Catholic lay group, Communion and Liberation, he said, "This examination of conscience is to be extended to the Curia. How many agencies are really necessary?"
Then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he said constant reform was needed by the church and its institutions in order to remove the "superfluous scaffolding" that obscures its divine mission.
The changes announced March 11 suggested any broad reform would be taken in a step-by-step, see-how-it-goes approach; the Vatican's wording that the new appointments were made "for the time being" also indicated that the joint presidencies may be temporary.
Pope John Paul II established the Pontifical Council for Culture in 1982 and, in 1993, he assigned to the council the tasks previously covered by the council for dialogue with nonbelievers.
The move to merge the interreligious dialogue council, an office created in 1964 by Pope Paul VI, with the office for culture reflects Pope Benedict's view that religions and cultures should be seen together.
In his 2004 book, "Truth and Tolerance," the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said, "Only in modern Europe has a concept of culture been developed that portrays it as a sphere separate from religion or even in opposition to it. In all known historical cultures, religion is an essential element of culture, is indeed its determinative center; it is religion that determines the scale of values and, thereby, the inner cohesion and hierarchy of all these cultures."
Culture, he said, is an attempt to understand the world and human existence within the world, so it naturally includes people's perception of the relationship between human beings and the divine.
Therefore, he said, the only way for cultures to dialogue with each other is to dialogue about truths concerning the person, "within which the truth about God and about reality as a whole is always involved."
"Faith itself is cultural," he wrote. "It does not exist in a naked state, as sheer religion. Simply by telling man who he is and how he should go about being human, faith is creating culture and is culture."
Pope Paul created the council for migrants and travelers in 1970 to study and provide pastoral care to people on the move. Some of the issues the council had been dealing with recently, such as the problem of human trafficking, should carry over easily into the work of the justice and peace council, an office also created by Pope Paul in 1967.
Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, said he had not been informed about any future plans for the council, only that the pope has decided that "for the time being" Cardinal Martino will serve as its president.
"We are here to do the will of God through the guidance of our pope," he told Catholic News Service March 13.
The archbishop said pairing his office with the council for justice and peace makes sense if one considers that injustice and war often force people to flee their homes.
However, he said, "our pontifical council from the beginning has focused specifically on providing pastoral care in the field of human mobility in general, so the connection with justice and peace is less immediate than it may appear."
In addition to providing pastoral care and advocacy for refugees and migrants, the council also coordinates pastoral programs for circus workers, fishers and other seafarers, foreign students, Gypsies, pilgrims and tourists, he said.
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Contributing to this story was Cindy Wooden.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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