A New Dicastery "Charity: Justice, and Peace?"
At the 15th session of the Council of Nine Cardinals the establishment of a dicastery called, “Charity: justice and peace” has been considered
Photo: Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, President of the Commission for the Protection of Minors.
At the 15th session of the Council of Nine Cardinals (C9) held from June 6th to 8th 2016 in the Vatican, work on the jurisdictions of various dicasteries of the Curia has continued in the light of a new Apostolic Constitution. The establishment of a dicastery called, “Charity, Justice, and Peace” has been considered. It would bring together the current Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace, Cor Unum for Human and Christian Development, and the Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees.
The various proposals concerning this new dicastery, as well as some congregations (Doctrine of the Faith, Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for the Causes of Saints, Institutions of Consecrated life and Societies of Apostolic Life) have been entrusted to Pope Francis for later study and consultations, according to Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office.
As for the Congregation for Bishops, the Secretariat of State, the Congregations for Catholic Education, for the Eastern Churches, and for the Clergy, and the Pontifical Councils for Culture, for the Promotion of Christian Unity, and Interreligious Dialogue, the intent was “simplification, harmonization of competences of diverse groups, of possible forms of decentralization with the bishops’ conferences,” specified Fr. Lombardi.
Secondly, the cardinals presented their intermediary reports. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and president of the Council for Economy, and Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, spoke on economic issues. Monsignor Dario Eduardo Vigano, prefect of the Secretariat for Communication, spoke regarding the reform of Vatican media, on the reorganization of work and the merge of the Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Centre.
Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, president of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, examined Pope Francis’s new Motu Proprio facilitating the procedure for resignation of bishops and superiors of religious congregations deemed to have been negligent regarding priests who are guilty of pedophilia.
The next sessions of the Council will take place from September 12 to 14, and then from December 12 to 14, 2016.
Sources: Vatican Radio – iMedia – DICI no. 337 - June, 2016
