The chairman of the Council of Cardinals has confirmed that a reform of the Roman Curia will call for two new congregations: one for the laity and one for charitable affairs.

Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Tegulcigalpa, Honduras said that a detailed proposal for reform has not yet been completed. But he told Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa: “The two bodies dedicated to the laity and charity are certain.”

The Council of Cardinals is expected to present a proposal for Curial reform to Pope Francis sometime next year. Cardinal Maradiaga said that the changes would streamline the Vatican bureaucracy, leaving fewer cardinals at work in the Roman Curia. He said that the Council of Cardinals has completed its work on a first major project: the creation of the Secretariat for the Economy. After completing a proposal for realignment of other offices, he said, the Council will look into the possibility of reform at the Secretariat of State, and at the Vatican tribunals as well.

The two new congregations that will be proposed, the Honduran cardinal said, will not be simply an amalgam of existing offices. There may be other changes, he said—including the possibility that lay people or religious could head the new congregations.


http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=23398