Pope Francis sets up new advisory panel

[winsome]

 From The Guardian (UK daily paper)
Pope Francis presaged a revolution in the running of the Catholic church when, at the weekend, he announced the formation of an eight-strong panel of cardinals from all parts of the world who are to advise him on governance and the reform of the Vatican.

The Italian church historian Alberto Melloni, writing in the Corriere della Sera, called it the "most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries". For the first time, a pope will be helped by a global panel of advisers who look certain to wrest power from the Roman Curia, the church's central bureaucracy.

Link

The group includes Cardinal George Pell (Australia) & Cardinal Sean O'Malley (USA). two well respected Church leaders.

According to The Guardian:
Several of the group's members will come to the job with a record of vigorous reform and outspoken criticism of the status quo. None has ever served in the Italian-dominated Curia in Rome and only one is an Italian: Giuseppe Bertello, the governor of the Vatican City State.

[epiphanius]

From The Guardian (UK daily paper)
Pope Francis presaged a revolution in the running of the Catholic church when, at the weekend, he announced the formation of an eight-strong panel of cardinals from all parts of the world who are to advise him on governance and the reform of the Vatican.

The Italian church historian Alberto Melloni, writing in the Corriere della Sera, called it the "most important step in the history of the church for the past 10 centuries". For the first time, a pope will be helped by a global panel of advisers who look certain to wrest power from the Roman Curia, the church's central bureaucracy.

The group includes Cardinal George Pell (Australia) & Cardinal Sean O'Malley (USA). two well respected Church leaders.

According to The Guardian:
Several of the group's members will come to the job with a record of vigorous reform and outspoken criticism of the status quo. None has ever served in the Italian-dominated Curia in Rome and only one is an Italian: Giuseppe Bertello, the governor of the Vatican City State.

winsome,

Thanks for sharing this--it certainly sounds like good news!

(WRT the Roman Curia needing reform, I am reminded of a story about Bl. Pope John XXIII.  Someone once asked him how many people worked for him at the Vatican, and he replied "about half.")

[LightHammer]

I would like to see the Curia reformed but with caution. I'm not overly critical of the Pope or the Curia nor do I hold any anticlerical sentiment either. I have noticed that those who are usually very nationalistic, tribal or racially minded. For the common African American Catholic the emphasis is on the race in a similar way that for the common European Catholic commentator value is more on the country. These things divide the Church and because the Curia's duty is the unity of the Church for the sake of the Church it catches alot of heat especially among the European newscasters I read.

You hear things like;

"The Vatican is out of touch with the everyday Catholic"

or

"The Curia is living in the past and needs to be modernized."

Don't get me wrong I diefinitely think the Curia needs to be more diversified but thats simply because Church membership is greatest outside of Europe and Italy. That is a far cry from the things you hear from the Guardian, the New York Times and the works.