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[Woodstock Report, December 1996, No. 48]
Copyright © 1996 Woodstock Theological Center
All rights reserved
Thomas J. Reese, S.J., a senior fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center, introduced his new book, Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, at a Woodstock forum held November 11, 1996. His book, the third in a trilogy on the governance of the Catholic Church, was published by Harvard University Press in November. The first two are Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church and A Flock of Shepherds: the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The responders to his presentation were the Most Rev. James W. Malone, retired bishop of Youngstown, Ohio, and Rev. James H. Provost, chair of the Department of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America. Elizabeth McKeown, who teaches history and culture studies in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University, moderated the discussion. We present an edited and abridged version of the three talks.
Thomas J. Reese, S.J., a senior fellow at Woodstock, is also an adjunct professor in the Graduate Program in Public Policy at Georgetown University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and is the author of The Politics of Taxation. He has been a lobbyist for tax reform and an associate editor of America.
As the world moves toward the year 2000, historians can point to few institutions that have played a major role in shaping practically every one of the last 20 centuries. In fact, there are few organizations that have been around that long. For almost 2,000 years Christianity has intimately touched the personal lives of millions of individuals, whether rich or poor, powerful or powerless, famous or unknown.
Christianity has had an impact on family life, economic transactions, political alliances, artistic achievements, and the way in which we understand the meaning of life and human purpose. It has formed cultures and changed the course of history. Its teachings touch areas as private as sexual fantasies and as public as nuclear war. It preaches salvation to sinners and everlasting life with God for the faithful.
Within the Church, the role of the papacy through the centuries has varied tremendously: comforting the Christians during the Roman persecutions, accepting imperial support from Emperor Constantine, confronting kings, converting and civilizing the barbarian hordes, patronizing the arts, condemning heretics, calling the Crusades, and mediating disputes among nations. Some popes protected local churches from political rulers while others sold benefices to the highest bidders. The Popes have been saints and scoundrels, warriors and peace-makers, reformers and corrupters, martyrs and murderers. Their actions have both united and divided the Church.
The papacy is not just a quaint artifact of history irrelevant to the world of today. The present Pope, John Paul II, will go down in history as one of the most influential leaders in the second half of the twentieth century. His support of Solidarity in Poland began the avalanche that swept Communism from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. He has been an articulate voice for social justice, peace, and human rights as he visits almost every corner of the world, from Alaska to South Africa. In his teaching he has also been a staunch defender of the traditions and practices that he believes are essential to the life of the Church and society at large.
And yet, the proper role of the papacy today is a hotly debated topic within the Catholic Church itself. It is also a sticking point in ecumenical relations with other Christian churches. Many complain that the Church has become excessively centralized, with local bishops becoming like branch managers of a multinational corporation where directives from the top are expected to be obeyed without question. Others feel that, in a world of moral and political chaos, a firm hand is needed at the helm. Papal leadership becomes more important than ever as communications and technology turn the world into a global village.
Within the Catholic Church, the papacy's influence is all-pervasive. During 68 papal visits to 112 countries, millions have turned out to listen to and pray with the Pope during his first 17 years in office. Even when he is not physically present, he controls much of what is going on in the Church even at the parish level. For example, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, written by a papal commission, will direct religious education of adults and children into the next century. Papal opposition to married clergy and women priests has determined who will and who will not lead parish communities in worship each Sunday. And practically every prayer uttered during these worship services has been approved in Rome, not only in the original Latin version but also in various translations. Thus Rome decided that "man" would continue to be used to refer to humanity in Scripture readings at Mass and in The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican regulations also determine how difficult it is for divorced Catholics to get annulments before they can be married again in the Church.
Vatican officials also select, often without much consultation with the local church, the bishops who govern these churches. By appointing papal loyalists as bishops, Rome can ensure that Vatican policies will be observed at the diocesan level. When necessary, Vatican officials intervene, demanding that theologians either recant or lose their right to teach.
Papal actions and teachings are decisive not only to Catholics but to others because of their reverberations in the world outside the Church. Participation in ecumenical dialogues by Catholics is both encouraged and controlled by the papacy. Papal teaching on birth control and abortion have demographic and environmental effects widely condemned by those supporting population control and "reproductive freedom," and widely endorsed by others espousing "family values." Papal opposition to the Persian Gulf War angered some and pleased others. Vatican opposition to economic sanctions against Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Cuba has gone against American foreign policy goals. Vatican views on arms control, Third World debt, capitalism, religious freedom, and refugees are an integral part of the international discourse in which the Catholic Church is a unique participant. The impact of papal actions on the world leads practically every nation except China and Vietnam to exchange ambassadors with the Holy See.
Despite the importance of the papacy for the Catholic Church and despite its role in international affairs, its internal workings are little known to Catholics, to world leaders, or to the world at large. This is partially owing to the secretive nature of the Vatican, which sees little advantage to letting others know its internal operations. General ignorance of the Vatican is bred by the uniqueness of this institution that is like no other with its unusual laws, structures, goals, procedures, personnel, and culture. An observer of the Vatican can quickly become lost in technical jargon, theological concepts, bureaucratic byways, and canonical procedures that have no parallel in secular society or in other churches.
Unfamiliarity with the workings of the Vatican has led many political leaders into unforeseen difficulty. The Clinton administration suffered an embarrassing confrontation with the Holy See at the Cairo conference when the Vatican delegation successfully opposed the U.S. delegation's language on abortion. The Reagan administration was thrown off guard by Vatican opposition to economic sanctions against the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. This ignorance is not limited to political leaders. When they come to Rome every five years for their ad limina visit, hundreds of bishops are just as confused about Vatican decision making when confronted by a papal bureaucracy with overlapping jurisdictions and secretive procedures. Maneuvering through this maze without a friendly guide is difficult for insiders and almost impossible for outsiders. Even within the Vatican itself, people in one office often do not know what is happening in another.
Understanding how the papacy operates is especially important today as it approaches the end of this millennium and tries to prepare itself for the next. That the papacy evolved and changed during the last two millennia is a historical fact. That it will continue to evolve and change is without doubt. Although many in the past have predicted the end of the papacy and of Christianity, both have outlived the doomsayers. The papacy of the future will undoubtedly have an impact on the future of Christianity and on future human history.
An essential help to the Pope in doing his work and accomplishing his goals are the offices housed at the Vatican. The Vatican, like any organization, is a system by which people, resources, and technologies are organized through structures and procedures to achieve goals within a given environment. Therefore, in order to understand the Vatican, we must look at these structures and procedures, its people and their goals, its resources and technologies, and the environment in which it operates.
Too often observers focus on one aspect of the Vatican, like the personality of the Pope, and try to explain everything from that perspective. While the personality of the Pope is certainly important, the papacy is as much an institution as an individual. It is an organization made up of a variety of people pursuing different goals while working together in structures that have evolved over the centuries. It is also a vital institution where the structures are changing under the impact of new people, new historical circumstances, and new goals.
Most Vatican officials are priests and religious who have given up family and alternative careers to work for the Church. They have gone through an extensive indoctrination and training that appeals to the highest ideals of service and commitment based on Christian faith and principles. Most also have specialized training in theology, canon law, or diplomacy. In the past, these officials were practically all Italian, but today only one third of the heads of congregations are Italian along with about half the professional staff. Many of these nonItalians come from the Third World. The people who work in the Vatican are a key to understanding the Vatican itself. Their goals, their failings, their professional and personal culture are part of the unique character of this institution.
Beyond the geographical boundaries of the Vatican is the larger world community in which the papacy operates. The papacy interacts with an everchanging secular, political, social, economic, and cultural environment. As a religious institution, the papacy also exists in a theological and religious environment with which it constantly interacts. Sometimes this external world is supportive, sometimes it is threatening, but at all times it is the source of the money, people, technology, and ideas the papacy needs to lead the Catholic Church. The Vatican is shaped by the world in which it operates, while at the same time it tries to shape this world according to its ideals and values.
In responding to the world around it, the Vatican uses structures and procedures that are unique: the college of cardinals, synod of bishops, congregations, councils, secretariats, tribunals, papal diplomats, the State of Vatican City, the Code of Canon Law, etc. Most of these structures have their roots centuries deep in history, and yet church structures and procedures are constantly evolving. Changes in structures and procedures have been particularly noticeable since the Second Vatican Council as Paul VI and John Paul II have attempted to reorganize the Vatican to deal with the contemporary Church and the modern world. Change will continue. For example, this year John Paul issued an apostolic constitution modifying the rules for electing a Pope.
In order to achieve its spiritual and temporal goals, the Vatican must operate in the real world. It has to buy equipment and office supplies, pay salaries and other expenses. Limits on funds mean limits on activities. The Vatican requires a stable and dependable financial organization to raise money and spend it wisely, but financial scandals and mismanagement have repeatedly blemished the papacy. Vatican finances have traditionally been very secretive, but recently more information has become available that helps us to understand how the Vatican manages its finances and how such management affects its policies.
Understanding the Vatican as a complex organization in a complicated and changing environment requires an awareness of many factors. Sometimes something in the external environment, like Italian reunification in 1870, changes the papacy against its will. Sometimes individuals, especially the Popes themselves, have a deep impact on the Vatican because of their ideas and skills. Sometimes it is structures that provide the mechanism for processing information and making decisions that have impact on millions. Looking at the total picture, despite its sometimes Byzantine complexity, is essential for understanding such a unique organization.
Visiting the Vatican for the first time can be an overwhelming experience for anyone. The pilgrim and tourist are dwarfed by gigantic columns and high ceilings. Everywhere one turns is a piece of history or a priceless work of art. The journalist's first impression of the Vatican is likewise daunting. Hardly anyone will speak on the record, and separating fact from rumor is an art, not a science. Nor is the bishop who comes to Rome for the first time at all sure what he will find. He knows he must pray at the tombs of the Apostles and see the Pope, but then he wanders from office to office hoping for assistance or at least sympathy. Even a newly elected Pope, like John Paul I and John Paul II, can be intimidated by the strangeness and the complexity of the internal operations of the Vatican.
If you sneak past the Swiss Guards you can look into offices where ambassadors discuss U.N. documents, where theologians nervously await examination, where millions of dollars are transferred from the First to the Third World, where the appointment of the new archbishop of Washington will be decided, where the ethics of arms sales is debated, and where penalties for pedophile priests are discussed. Dressed in cassocks or black suits, the priests and religious, like millions of their secular counterparts, process paper for their superiors. The decisions that come out of these offices can change people's lives, cause international incidents, and control the way the Christian message is presented to the world.
Since the Pope is central to the Vatican, I begin my inquiry by looking at his roles as the bishop of Rome, civil monarch of Vatican City, and head of the college of bishops. Ensuing chapters of my book describe the roles of ecumenical councils, episcopal conferences, synods of bishops, and the college of cardinals in the governance of the Church. I also examine the Roman curia, its people, culture, organization, procedures, and finances. I then look at how the Pope uses the Roman curia to have an impact outside the Vatican, especially in the selection of bishops, the control of theologians, and his relations with secular rulers. Finally, I conclude by examining how the papacy and the Vatican might be reorganized to serve the Church and the world in the twentyfirst century.
Many people are especially interested in my proposals for reforming the Vatican and the government of the Church. I am a little reluctant to summarize my proposals because it is like serving dessert before the rest of the meal. This evening I will list five of the more important reforms from the book; you will have to go to the book itself for a fuller explanation of my argumentation and analysis.
First, I recommend that we have an ecumenical council once every 25 years. It seems to me that if the college of bishops is to be taken seriously, then each generation must meet to reflect on the needs of the Church and the Church's role in the world. I also suggest that the membership of the council could be limited to diocesan bishops.
Second, I would also limit membership of the synod of bishops to persons elected by and from episcopal conferences. If the purpose of the synod is to advise the Pope, there is no need for prelates from the curia to be members since they are available in Rome to advise him at any time. They should attend the synod as staff and not as members.
Third, more important than structural changes in the synod, there is the need for a new mindset among synodal members. Currently, it is unacceptable for any bishop to criticize the curia or suggest that the Pope is doing anything wrong. This is considered impolite and disloyal. But how can you give advice to someone if you cannot tell him what he is doing wrong?
Fourth, I recommend that nuncios, secretaries, presidents, prefects, and other officials in the curia not be made bishops or cardinals. This will clarify that these officials are not part of the magisterium but staff to the Pope. In addition, such a reform will make the curia less like a court and more like a modern bureaucracy.
Fifth, I believe that local bishops and national conferences of bishops should be able to respond to local needs without such heavy supervision and review from Rome. The local churches should also be given more say in the appointment of their bishops.
My research was done during nine months in Rome where I interviewed over 100 people working in the Vatican, including more than a dozen cardinals. While many people were willing to talk to me, few wanted to be quoted by name. My book contains numerous quotations from Vatican officials so that they can describe their work in their own words.
I hope that my book will provide a guide to those interested in understanding the inner workings of the Vatican. And I am especially grateful to the friends of Woodstock because without their financial support, this book could not have been written.
Most Rev. James W. Malone, retired Bishop of Youngstown, Ohio, was named a bishop in 1960 and participated in Vatican Council II. He has been president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and serves on its Ex Corde Ecclesiae and Domestic Policy Committees. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Catholic University.
When I heard that Father Tom Reese was writing this book I thought that it would read like a telephone book. Inside the Vatican? What would make it readable? But listen to this lively sentence from page one: "The papacy has traveled a long distance in almost two thousand years, from the shores of the Lake of Galilee to the shores of the Tiber, from a fishing boat to a Renaissance palace, where the Pope reigns as sovereign monarch, from a one-man show to a complex international institution." All ten chapters are fascinating, and I think they're fascinating because of their candor and their balanced reporting. To achieve a balanced perspective is the mark of a scholar. That's what Tom has done. And he has also spoken candidly, revealing his own opinions as he goes along. You may conclude, and you will be correct, that I liked Inside the Vatican.
It is not difficult for me to relate to the Pope's role as Bishop of Rome-the challenges he faces are not all that different from the pastoral challenges in my own diocese and in other dioceses of the western Catholic world.
For example: a high percentage of professed believers, those who consider themselves Catholic, have a low rate of participation in Sunday liturgies and a high rate in approval of birth control, divorce, cohabitation and pre-marital sex. More than half of the Rome diocese's "believers" do not believe in an afterlife nor do they believe that Christianity is the "one true religion." The Pope, as Tom Reese has pointed out, has much work to do in his own backyard-as do we all.
It is much more difficult for me to relate to the Pope's role as the worldwide leader of the Church. He has the awesome burden of meeting the spiritual needs of a diverse constituency with a gamut of political and social concerns. It is a lonely leadership, made much more so, in my opinion, by the practice inside the Vatican of short-circuiting the principle of subsidiarity.
Tom points out that bishops are not "given" authority or power by the code of canon law or by the Pope. They have their authority because they are bishops. Likewise the Bishops' Conference's power is derived not from the Pope but from the bishops themselves, exercising episcopal authority in their particular churches. However, in practice, Tom notes, canon law "so restricts the authority of bishops and conferences that it often looks like they receive what little authority they have from the Holy See."
My co-responder, Jim Provost, has written, for example, that the Vatican right of review of decrees by Bishops' Conferences, ostensibly to make certain that nothing is said that conflicts with Church law, in fact gives the Holy See not only veto power over the bishops' decrees but also, through their revisions, has the Bishops' Conferences promulgating decrees that were not in fact the work of the respective conference.
The Pope should acknowledge the local church as church, and not a branch office of the Vatican. Legitimate pluralism, subsidiarity and more-than-perfunctory participation in decision making should be encouraged by recognizing the responsibility of the local church.
The Vatican should recognize greater decision-making authority by the Bishops' Conferences. Individual bishops and conference representatives should not feel that they must approach the curial offices with miter in hand as supplicants.
Of course, the Pope can intervene in the life of a diocese, a local church, but this pastoral intercession ought only be used when the local church is either unable to fulfill its mission or is acting improperly to the detriment of its people.
Neither should the local church claim a self-sufficiency detached from the universal church. Subsidiarity is a valid church principle that should be put into practice. However, as a local church, we must be in communion with other local churches and we must attest to the unique universal ministry of our Church in Rome. We may never entirely melt the tension between the papacy and the local church, but we can learn to use that tension creatively.
I will add one suggestion to Tom's priority wish-list for our Church as we celebrate the beginning of a new era. I am not an advocate of term limits for Popes, but we must, as Church, recognize that although modern medicine has helped add years to our average life span, it has not guaranteed that our quality of life, our decision making, will keep pace during those extra years.
So, my priority wish list is: we must find a way to assure the Church that when a pontiff becomes unable adequately to fulfill the duties of office, a system of succession will be in place, perhaps not unlike the relationship that a coadjutor has with a diocesan bishop. Thankfully, no one has asked me to design the blueprint for such a system.
Rev. James H. Provost is a professor of canon law and chair of the Department of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America. Active in the Canon Law Society of America, he has served as its president and executive director. He is the managing editor of The Jurist, a journal of Catholic University's law department. He has a J.C.D. from Lateran University.
I think Tom's book provides fresh views in many ways, even for someone like myself, who has studied the Vatican and its canonical dimensions for quite a while. I would second Bishop Malone in calling this a well-balanced book.
Tom has made five suggestions. I'd like to raise a few questions about these because, while they may sound good, putting them into practice presents a rocky road. For example, to hold an ecumenical council every 25 years limited to diocesan bishops: what does that say about the role of religious orders? These orders form a very important counterbalance to the diocesan structure of the Church, and to the politics that can envelop a place like the Vatican. They have a balancing effect. They dampen some of the extremes that can develop right and left, and they provide a charismatic insight into the Gospel that can get lost in the bureaucracy of church structure. So, to exclude them from an ecumenical council might not be a wise idea. How about the role of lay persons, and in particular, that of women, at the next ecumenical council? A diocesan synod or a particular council, like a plenary council for a country, or a council for a province in the Church, includes a cross-section of God's people. Obviously, the bishops are there and representatives of the clergy, but so are representatives of the laity and of religious. If we can include all these representatives at local levels, we ought to be able to do so at an ecumenical council.
Tom's second recommendation is that the synod of bishops should be restricted to elected members from episcopal conferences, and that the curia serve as a staff. Presently, the synod of bishops is made up of the heads of all the Roman offices and bishops coming from various parts of the world elected by their episcopal conferences. Tom suggests, why not have the elected members make up the synod? The Pope can listen to curia members whenever he wants, but he can't always hear the bishops from around the world.
The suggestion is important and needs to be taken very seriously, but it renews a long historical debate about the nature of the Roman curia. The Roman curia is not only a staff to the Pope; it is the clergy of the province of Rome, the bishops, the pastors, and the deacons, those who theoretically assist the Pope in his role as head of the Church. Would this change call for a major change in our very thinking about what the Roman curia is, or would it return us to the original meaning of that body? So a very simple suggestion raises some deep, long-term questions. It would not be easy to implement.
Tom's suggestion also raises a question about the role of the synod of bishops. This has never been resolved. When it was first proposed during the Council, it was to be a kind of continuing experience of the Council, in which bishops from around the world would come together with the Pope and would hold the curia accountable. It's the bell on the cat. The difficulty is, the cat has taken over the bell. And it means that the synod is no longer seen, as it was originally proposed, as a collegial body, but rather as a papal institution much like any other office of the Roman curia.
Third, Tom addresses the mindset of the synod members, asking them to be more open and candid. But who are the members of the synod of bishops? They are bishops. And where do bishops come from? Until there is a more effective approach to the selection of bishops who are genuinely committed to the evangelization of the People of God and the mission of the Church, you won't find people selected to become bishops or elected to the synod of bishops who will be able to express themselves with that kind of candor.
Fourth, Tom says that papal diplomats and curial officials should not be bishops or cardinals. The suggestion is certainly one that others have made, and Tom makes it very forcefully. It has implications that need to be thought through.
Finally, the Bishops' Conferences should be able to act without heavy Roman supervision. This is a two-edged sword. Certainly, conferences could be much more effective in evangelization. The desperate cry to the Church today is to spread the Gospel. And if you're always hamstrung by little regulations here, there, and everywhere, it's hard to proclaim the Gospel. But the other side of the sword is, would the conferences accomplish anything? If we're going to say the conferences have to assume more responsibility, then the bishops in the conferences have to be willing to assume that responsibility. And that is a problem even today, in our own conference here in the United States.
Tom talks about the process of electing a Pope, but in the code of canon law, it says, "in addition to there being a special law about electing a Pope, there's supposed to be a special law about what happens when the Pope becomes incapacitated." There is no special law for that today. It seems to me that we are desperately in need of that kind of reform in the Church. There is the clearly documented case of Urban VII, who was the Pope whose rather paranoid or perhaps schizophrenic reactions to his own cardinals led to the Great Western Schism, a hundred years of disaster for the Latin Church. Those who want to maintain the present system think it keeps the Pope more free, but it could actually weaken the papacy.
Another area for reform is the Roman curia, which needs to become a more effective aid to the Pope and not a third force in the Church, which it is sometimes referred to. Pope John Paul talks seriously about the curia being at the service of the Pope and not at its own independent ends. But you have to do a couple of things, it seems to me, to make it work. Tom suggests changing the offices from their present structure, which has to do with specific topics, making them geographical. The service of the Pope to the Church in North America, or the Church in the Americas. And let those offices collaborate with one another on specific issues, but become experts in the geographic area for which they are designed. This idea merits considerable attention.
Currently, we do not have a system of a good civil service in the Vatican. It's a dumping ground for some people. People who can't make it at home, we send to Rome! Or, it's a place for people with great ambition. And a lot of Third World people are very anxious to serve in Rome, because Rome offers a considerable improvement in their living situation. So you're not getting people who are necessarily competent.
I think we need the Roman curia. Any leader needs good staff, and that's what the curia is supposed to be. But it's already gone through two major stages. In the first millennium, it was very much the system that any patriarchate had, it was a church body, and structured and operated that way. In the second millennium, it has been a secular body, initially patterned after the courts of princes, and then with Sixtus V, it became the first of the great modern bureaucracies.
We have a secular model for the curia today. The Pope has said, "We need to repent and to convert in preparations for the millennium that begins in the year 2000." And he's also said that the papacy is perhaps one of the stumbling blocks to Christian unity, and has called for suggestions on how to reform. It may be time to adopt a new style, a new model, one that is more suited to a world Church and one that is ready for the challenges of the third millennium. Tom's book will provide you with a keen insight into the history, the current organization and practice of this curia and, without that, there is no point in looking at any further reforms. You need to know where you are now.