The Vatican

In the first three centuries CE, the Christians lived in the cities of the Roman Empire. The habits, morals and laws of the Roman Empire constituted for the Christians a very difficult environment for practicing their faith. In the public sphere Christians were discriminated, and the martyrs testified their faith suffering torture and death in consecutive waves of persecutions. In this hostile world it was hard for the Christians to be able to come together for prayers and celebrating their faith. The Christian communities met in private houses. On Sundays the Christians met for celebrating the Eucharist. Testimonies remembered the last few words of martyrs commenting their death sentences, struggling with their faith in Jesus Christ before dying and trying to persevere in confidence. The first Christians tried to pray in the morning, at midday and in the evening. When the sun was not shining or was too hot for working, there was a possibility to pause and pray. The personal prayer centered on giving thanks, on meditating life and death, and on the significance of faith in resurrection of Jesus Christ. Personal prayer prevailed over communal prayer in liturgies. The official recognition of the Christians by the Emperor Constantine in 324 CE profoundly changed the life of the Christian communities. The emperors started building churches for the liturgy, the Christians were free to assemble in public and were entering public offices of the empire. The liturgy and the liturgical prayers began prevailing over the private personal prayer. The communities of the house churches lost their significance for the Christians. The egalitarian structure of the first communities gave way to the development of an organization and a leadership structure (Jungmann, Josef Andreas. Christliches Beten in Wandel und Bestand. Freiburg im Breisgau 1991).

In the early third century after Christ the jurist and first Christian theologian writing in Latin, Tertullian (155-220 CE) used the Roman social-juridical concept of auctoritas (dignity, influence, prestige) to describe the standing and influence of offices in the Christian communities (Wassilowsky, Günther. 2012. “Symbolische Repräsentation von Amt und Autorität im Papsttum.” In Amt und Autorität. Kirche in der späten Moderne, edited by Matthias Remenyi. 33–51. 35. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh). Tertullian claimed that the hidden and invisible auctoritas of God and Christ manifests itself in a Church office. In the Roman Empire auctoritas was a juridical power to authorize something, a juridical authority; it was not the formal political power to govern. When witnessing the revelation of Christ, the Apostles were authorized to be the first auctores (men acting with auctoritas), who passed the faith they had received on to their episcopal successors, establishing a line of tradition of auctoritas (ibid. 36). This construction of a consecutive series of bishops does not correspond to history. We are not able to reconstruct such a line of bishops in the tradition of the Christians. In the first century CE there were not even bishops in the Christian communities, there were presbyters, elders, and men and women presiding the eucharist, there were no male priests, apostolic men and women were called apostles. In the second century CE we begin hearing of some bishops. They were elected and took leadership offices in the communities. Tertullian’s construction was enormously successful in the following centuries because it was the perfect instrument to legitimate male authoritarian power by the bishops in the Roman Catholic Church.

In the centuries following the life of Tertullian, titles and juridical powers of authority were increasingly reserved for the Bishop of Rome alone and were no longer equally passed on to and administered by all the bishops of the Church. In the fifth century Pope Leo I successfully claimed that it was only the Pope who legitimately possesses the authority or auctoritas that was given to Peter by Jesus (ibid.).

Further centralization of powers over the Church in the hands of the Pope led after more than thousand years to Pastor Aeternus,the dogmatic constitution of the First Vatican Council that was promulgated by Pope Pius IX on July 18, 1870, CE. The constitution claims that the power of the jurisdiction of the individual local bishop originates from rightful instalment by the Pope, who possess the primacy of jurisdiction over the Church according to divine law. This power of the local bishop is not abolished by the primacy of the Pope but is integrated and subordinated under the universal Church under the primacy of the Pope. The local bishop must therefore be obedient to the Pope in all matters concerning faith, morals, and government of the Church (Franzen, August. 1965. Kleine Kirchengeschichte. Freiburg: Herder. 1965. 344).

The dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus was an unbelievable success of Pope Pius IX within the Roman Catholic Church. The dogma of the absolute universal papal primacy and infallibility contrasted with the Pope’s absolute loss of secular political power in Italy. Pius IX, just as the Popes before him, had reigned the Papal States according to strict absolute monarchist principles; when revolution in Rome threatened these powers, Pius IX fought back with military force and received help from the French army (ibid. 337). Nevertheless, Italy’s national movement for unity was becoming stronger and stronger. In 1859, the Pope lost the Romagna, and in 1860 his troops lost Umbria and the Marques. On September 20, 1870, Piedmonts’ soldiers conquered Rome and after more than 1000 years the Papal States came to an end (ibid. 338). Pius IX fled to live in the Vatican like a prisoner and only Pius XI in 1929 renounced the Papal States. In return, he obtained full sovereignty over Vatican City and concluded with Mussolini a contract regulating relations between the Italian Church and the Italian State (ibid.). Such concordats, namely contracts of international law between a state and the Roman Catholic Church based on their reciprocal recognition as sovereign persons of law in the restoration of political Europe following Napoleon, had already been concluded with Spain (1851), Naples (1818), Sardinia, France (1817), Russia (1847) and Bavaria (1817) (ibid. 334). After World War I Pope Benedict XV (1914-22) increased the number of the Vatican’s diplomatic missions to 25 embassies and his successor continued to expand the Vatican’s net of diplomatic ties to other states. The Popes’ soft powers of diplomatic influence and growing international respect and prestige contrasted with the political insignificance of the Popes in the world (ibid. 349).

The Vatican City State covers a territory of 0.44 square kilometers and was founded in 1929 as a sovereign State under international law and distinct from the Holy See, following the ratification of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and the Italian fascist government under Benito Mussolini. The population of the Vatican City State is about 800 people; 400 have Vatican citizenship, the others have permission to reside there. There are about seventy cardinals resident at the Vatican, about 300 bishops and some clergy. In 2019, there are four lay women working in relatively high posts at the Vatican, three in the Curia and one heading the Vatican Museums (https://www.vaticanstate.va/it/stato-governo/note-generali/popolazione.html).

Head of Vatican City State is the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope, who has to be a male celibate. He exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the state of the Vatican City. (https://www.vaticanstate.va/it/stato-governo/storia/la-citta-del-vaticano-oggi.html). Vatican City State is the only recognized independent state that is not a member of the UN, and it is the only remaining absolute monarchy in Europe when it comes to its governance and political system.

How does the governance of the Roman Catholic Church as an absolute monarchy function? The US American Jesuit priest Thomas Reese took a whole year doing research in Rome, “interviewing more than a hundred people working in the Vatican, including thirteen cardinals” (Reese, Thomas J. 1996. Inside the Vatican. The politics and organization of the Catholic Church. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. viii). Most of the interviewees insisted on their anonymity concerning the tapes of the interviews, “Very few wanted their names to be used. This in itself says much about politics in the Vatican” (ibid.). It is clear, the power structure of the absolute monarchy is sustained by censorship on anything that would officially leave the walls of secrecy and breaking the law of silence means the end to one’s career in the Vatican and the Catholic Church. “People in one office often do not know what is happening in another”, visitors and bishops coming to Rome are confused by overlapping jurisdictions and secretive procedures (ibid. 4).

The papacy’s influence is all-pervasive in the Roman Catholic Church (ibid. 2). The pope authorizes The Catechism of the Catholic Church a publication that since 1993 directs the religious education of adults and children and will do so for some time because the popes are not willed to change the Church’s teachings. What Reese reports on John Paul II is also true for Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. They oppose married clergy and women priests, divorce, and birth control. Rome decided that there is no gendering when Scripture is read at Mass or in any official documents. Rome determines “how difficult it is for divorced Catholics to get annulments before they can be married again in the Church” (ibid. 3). Bishops who are out of line with Vatican directives are deposed, like in 1995 the French bishop Jacques Gaillot and Vatican officials demand that dissident theologians lose their right to teach (ibid.). Until 2022, nothing has really changed since these days of the papacy of John Paul II and possible change will have to wait for future popes.

As the ruler of Vatican City, the pope is an absolute monarch with supreme legislative, judicial, and executive authority, and these powers are not controlled by any checks and balances (ibid. 25). It is true, maintaining unity of the Church is an essential responsibility of the pope and the college of bishops, but the dictate of unity is different from a consensus that has been reached based on equal dignity, liberty, freedom, and rights of all Christians. It is also true that a strong papacy helped John Paul II to successfully liberate the Church in Eastern Europe. He worked for a freer Church in China, Cuba and Vietnam and defended the rights of Catholic minorities, especially in Muslim regimes that deny religious freedom to the Church but also in the subcontinent of India with its political Hindu nationalism (ibid. 28).

Absolute power without any checks and balances leaves the Church with great risks. The sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and the role of John Paul II in the cover-up of the abuses lead the Catholic Church into a fundamental crisis. The complete failing of pope John Paul II (1978–2005) and the failing of Benedict XVI (2005–2013) to deal rightly with the sex abuse scandals of the Roman Catholic Church result from the lack of checks and balances for the papal government in the church.

In order to introduce checks and balances into the government of the Roman Catholic Church papal primacy has to get constrained. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) did not challenge papal primacy, but the bishops discussed and debated the concept of collegiality of the college of the bishops with the pope (ibid. 36). National episcopal conferences would again get more power, and the ancient tradition of the patriarchal synods was a model therefore (ibid. 39). Reese suggests that these conferences and the possible future councils learn from modern secular legislative bodies how to institutionalize collegial structures in the church. Periodic sessions, committees, staff, and parliamentary procedures are important instruments securing a system of checks and balances, controlling legislators and bureaucracies and the abuse of executive power (ibid. 39–40). Structures will be needed that permit the full participation of lay women, men, and queer at all levels of church life and governance (ibid. 40). During the long reign of John Paul II, the open consultative process used by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) in drafting pastoral letters was not liked. Consequently, the pope appointed bishops that were in keeping with his views (ibid. 34). The NCCB disagreed with John Paul II on many points. Such were “regulations dealing with annulments of marriages, the age of confirmation, lay preaching, altar girls, alienation of church property, the role of retired bishops in the bishops’ conference, terms for pastors, inclusive language in liturgical books and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, granting the chalice to the laity on Sundays, and other liturgical issues” (ibid. 33–34).

The papal offices that help the pope in the governance of the universal church are called the Roman Curia. These agencies “organize the people who gather and process information, give advice to the pope, and implement his decisions” (ibid. 109). In 2019, the Roman Curia includes the Secretariat of State, nine congregations, three dicasteries, three tribunals, five pontifical councils and other offices. The Vatican Secretariat of State coordinates the work of the Vatican and handles any issue that does not fall into some other office’s jurisdiction (ibid. 175). One section for general affairs acts as the pope’s secretariat for any document or correspondence going to and from the pope, and one for relations with states (ibid.). In 2017, Pope Francis established a third section for diplomatic staff of the Holy See.

The three tribunals are the Apostolic Penitentiary and deals with excommunications reserved to the Holy See (ibid. 109); the Roman Rota mostly is busy with marriage cases and the Apostolic Signature is the supreme court of the church that also receives reports from diocesan tribunals (ibid. 111–12).

The members of a congregation are only cardinals and bishops, that is male celibates (ibid. 113). In 2019, the head of the Secretariat of the State that is prefect, is an Italian Cardinal. From the prefects of the nine congregations of the Curia one cardinal is African (congregation for the liturgy and the sacraments), one is Canadian, two are from South America and five are Europeans (four of them are Italians). The secretaries of the prefects are archbishops from Italy (four), Europe (two) and South America (one). Laity we find only as members of the pontifical councils. Prefects of congregations and presidents of councils are often former official members of other congregations and councils; the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is a member of almost every congregation touching on doctrinal issues: Oriental Churches, Divine Worship and Sacraments, Bishops, Evangelization and Education (ibid. 119). The prefects and presidents do not use their multiple memberships for better cooperation but rather to ensure with their veto rights the influence of their own congregation or council. The higher the importance of a congregation or council the higher is the percentage of their serving individuals coming from inside the Vatican. The Vatican secures at least a majority of two-thirds coming from inside (ibid.). Since the Roma Curia helps the pope screen and select candidates, “vocal critics of the Curia are not likely to be appointed” (ibid. 122). Inter-congregational and inter-dicasterial communication and coordination is poor, drafts of documents usually do not circulate. Talking to anyone outside the office is normally restricted to the prefect, secretary, and undersecretary. A lower official would usually check with his superiors before sharing information with an official from another office (ibid. 132).

“Loyalty to the pope and to church teaching is a sine qua non of working in the Vatican” (ibid. 165). Most of the secretaries, undersecretaries and lower ranks of the congregations and councils are careerists. Promotion depends on loyalty and years of service. To survive in the Roman Curia, one has to live by the five “don’ts”: “Don’t think. If you think, don’t speak. If you think, and if you speak, don’t write. If you think, and if you speak, and if you write, don’t sign your name. If you think, and if you speak, and if you write and if you sign your name, don’t be surprised” (ibid. 164). The organization and procedures of the Roman Curia centralize power in the hands of the prefects and presidents. (ibid. 136) The impact of no curial prelates and lay people in the government of the church is very limited and efforts of change and reform are also very limited.

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development had become effective on January 1, 2017. The Dicastery combined the work of four Pontifical Councils: Justice and Peace, Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers and Cor Unum. The laywoman Dr. Flaminia Giovanelli was undersecretary in the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice since 2012 and now is undersecretary in the larger Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (Bordoni, Linda. “Taking up the Pope’s call to Promote Integral Human Development”. Vatican News. December 23, 2017. https://vaticannews.va/). She has two clerics at her side as undersecretaries, and above her there are a secretary who is a priest and as president a cardinal.

In September 2016, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life officially began its work, replacing the former Pontifical Council for the Laity and Pontifical Council for the Family, which were dissolved. In November 2017, the Vatican announced Pope Francis’s appointment of two lay women as the first two undersecretaries of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. Dr. Gabriella Gambino is an expert in bioethics, Dr. Linda Ghisoni an expert in canon law. The department is responsible for projects relating to the apostolate of laity, families, and the institution of marriage, within the Church (Brockhaus, Hannah. “Pope names two laywomen to key positions in Vatican’sfamily office”. Crux. November 7, 2017. https://cruxnow.com/vatican/). The secretary of the Dicastery is a religious priest and the President is a cardinal.

The structures of the Vatican do not realize the collegial character of the church (Reese 1996, 172). A church seen as a communion of churches needs a decentralized structure where greater liberty and authority are given to local churches, local bishops, and episcopal conferences (ibid. 139). The pope as absolute monarch of the Catholic Church has the agency to introduce change and institute collegial structures in the Church. Will there be a pope willing to go for this change? The pope is the absolute monarch who reigns with the help of more than five thousand bishops and over four hundred thousand priests around the world almost 1.3 billion Catholics. Male white celibates monopolize, use and abuse the power in the Roman Catholic Church.

On October 21, 2018, Fides News Agency (http://www.fides.org/en), the Information service of the Pontifical Mission societies of Vatican City released the following statistics, updated to December 31, 2016. By December 31, 2016, the world population was 7,352,289,000. On the same date, Catholics in the world numbered 1,299,059,000 persons with an overall increase of 14,249,000 compared with the numbers for 2015. The increase affects all continents, except Europe. The total number of Bishops in the world increased by forty-nine persons, to 5,353. There are 4,063 Diocesan Bishops and 1,263 Religious Bishops. Diocesan Bishops increased by twenty-seven persons, Religious Bishops by twenty-two. The total number of priests in the world decreased in 2016 to 414,969 that is 687 priests less than in 2015. According to the Vatican’s presentation of the statistics, Europe was mainly to blame for the decrease in priests, because in 2016, there were 2,583 fewer priests in Europe than in the year before. The Vatican’s statistical office registered a decrease of 589 priests in America compared to 2015. There is no logical need for statistics to hide the numbers for North America and to present the numbers for Central America, the Caribbean and South America without including them in one item that is called America. The numbers for the United States are available. The total number of diocesan and religious priests in the U. S. in 1985 was about 57,000, in 2005 about 43,000 and in 2013 about 38,000. The crisis of priestly vocations is very real in the U.S. The Vatican’s office of statistics hides this reality and presents numbers for all of America. Hiding the vocational crisis of priests by presenting a construction of statistics that suggests a different reality for North America than the case is, must be called manipulation of facts or simply fake news. This kind of manipulation legitimizes continuing with business as usual and evades addressing the problems. It is true: increases of the number of priests were registered in Africa and Asia. There was an overall decrease in the number of religious women by 10,885 persons to 659,445 in 2016. An increase was registered in Africa (+ 943) and Asia (+ 533), a decrease in America (- 3,775), Europe (-8,370) and Oceania (-216).

Not only the huge communication network of the Roman Curia helps govern the Pope. Nuncios from papal embassies in 179 countries send information and receive from the Pope or the cardinal state secretary instructions on pastoral, political and economic matters (Nuzzi, Gianluigi. 2012. Seine Heiligkeit. Die geheimen Briefe aus dem Schreibtisch von Papst Benedikt XVI. München: Piper. 268). In 1900 there existed only about 20 apostolic nunciatures, in 1978 there were already 84, in 2005 there were 174 and the number is still growing in order to secure the Vatican’s influence on the geopolitical world stage (ibid.). The nuncios collect detailed information on local bishops and the men of their administration, on the state of the dioceses concerning loyalty to Rome, the mood of the Catholics concerning new candidates for bishop in dioceses and on much more (ibid.).

Confusion and corruption going on in the Vatican led to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. His successor, Pope Francis, had to initiate a reform of the Roman Curia at the request of the conclave that elected him on March 13, 2013. Inside the Curia Pope Francis met massive resistance to his reform plans. Pope Francis did not hesitate to go public with his complaints about the intern obstruction of reform. In his Christmas address to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2017, he acknowledged the difficult task of trying to reform the Curia (Pope Francis. 2017. “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis.” Christmas Greetings to the Roman Curia. 21 December. The Holy See. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2017/december/documents/papa-francesco_20171221_curia-romana.html). He bitterly complained that a minority in the Curia “betray the purpose of its existence” and he somewhat helplessly moralized that the relationship between the Curia and the local churches must be based on collaboration and trust and never on superiority or adversity (ibid.). “The relationship that exists between all those who work in the Roman Curia. From the Dicastery heads and superiors to the officials and all others” must be a ministerial and curial diaconia; “communion with Peter reinforces and reinvigorates communion between all the members” (ibid.). Concerning the state of affairs at the Curia, Pope Francis calls “for rising above that unbalanced and debased mindset of plots and small cliques that in fact represent – for all their self-justification and good intentions – a cancer leading to a self-centeredness that also seeps into ecclesiastical bodies, and in particular those working in them” (ibid.). He alludes “to another danger: those who betray the trust put in them and profiteer from the Church’s motherhood. I am speaking of persons carefully selected to give a greater vigour to the body and to the reform, but – failing to understand the lofty nature of their responsibility – let themselves be corrupted by ambition or vainglory. Then, when they are quietly sidelined, they wrongly declare themselves martyrs of the system, of a ‘Pope kept in the dark’, of the ‚old guard’…, rather than reciting a mea culpa. Alongside these, there are others who are still working there, to whom all the time in the world is given to get back on the right track, in the hope that they find in the Church’s patience an opportunity for conversion and not for personal advantage. Of course, this is in no way to overlook the vast majority of faithful persons working there with praiseworthy commitment, fidelity, competence, dedication and great sanctity” (ibid.).

On March 19, 2022, Pope Francis finally presented the long-awaited Curial reform in the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium. On the Roman Curia and its service to the Church in the world (https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/20220319-costituzione-ap-praedicate-evangelium.html). Does the reform change the organization and government of the Curia and introduce some checks and balances? There is the Secretariat of State with the Secretary of State directing. There are 16 Dicasteries, 3 institutions of justice, 6 institutions of finance and three offices. The institutions of finance must control the administration of the Dicasteries and the economy of the Vatican. There are no more Congregations, but there are more Dicasteries. The first Dicastery is the Dicastery for Evangelization and is presided over by the Roman Pontiff. It is not any more obligatory that a cardinal directs a Dicastery, even a lay woman or man may direct a Dicastery. This fact sounds like a big reform and indeed is a big reform at the condition that we see lay women and men appointed prefects to direct a Dicastery: “People who serve in the Curia are chosen from among bishops, priests, deacons, members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and lay people who stand out for their spiritual life, their good pastoral experience” (ibid.). Queer people will still be excluded from leading a Dicastery. The lay women and men possibly leading a Dicastery are legitimated by the appointment of the souverain pontiff. The curial reform does not touch the hierarchical structure of the Roman Church with the Roman Pontiff at the top of the hierarchy and as supreme authority of the Church.

Article 12 of the Apostolic Constitution says in §1 “The Roman Curia is composed of the Secretariat of State, the Dicasteries and other Institutions, all juridically equal among themselves.” This means that the Vatican’s congregations and councils become juridically equal dicasteries.

And Article 22 reads: “Possible conflicts of competencies arising among Dicasteries or between Dicasteries and the Secretariat of State are to be submitted to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, unless the Roman Pontiff determines otherwise.”

This means, that conflicts of interest are not discussed openly in a spirit of brotherly and sisterly collegiality, but conflicts are resolved by a court that follows Canon law. There is no structural reform for the cooperation between Dicasteries. Prescriptions like “communion and participation must be the hallmark of the internal working of the Curia and each of its institutions” are vague and testify to the helplessness for effective reform. Suggestions like “interdicasterial meetings, which express the communion and cooperation existing within the Curia, discuss matters involving more than one Dicastery” describe formal procedures and empty concepts. The prefects and presidents will not use their multiple memberships for better cooperation but rather to ensure with their veto rights the influence of their own dicasteries and institutions.

The Curial reform of Pope Francis does not institutionalize collegial structures in the church. Collegial structures could be periodic sessions, committees, staff, and parliamentary procedures that are important instruments securing a system of checks and balances, controlling legislators and bureaucracies and the abuse of executive power (Reese 1996. 39–40). Structures will be needed that permit the full participation of lay women, men, and queer at all levels of church life and governance (Reese 1996. 40). The Curia will not change quickly with the reform of Pope Francis. Most of the secretaries, undersecretaries and lower ranks of the congregations and councils are careerists and it will take time to replace them. The reform appoints the personal for five years, and it is possible to serve for another five years. Promotion will still depend on loyalty.