- Feb 5, 2002
- 165,522
- 55,220
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
If you could reform the Vatican, what would you do?
Reforming the Vatican
What the Church Can Learn from Other Institutions
Thomas J. Reese, SJ
Continued- http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=2200
Reforming the Vatican
What the Church Can Learn from Other Institutions
Thomas J. Reese, SJ
Too often when someone proposes the reform of church structures, the reformer is attacked for borrowing from the secular political field, as if this were necessarily a bad thing. But throughout history the Vatican has often imitated the organization of secular political institutions. Today the governance of the church is more centralized than at any time in its history. To make the church more collegial, the Vatican should once again adopt practices of the secular political world.
When St. Peter arrived in Rome, he did not immediately appoint cardinals and set up the offices that we see in the Vatican today. He had only a secretary to help him with his correspondence. In early centuries, the bishop of Rome had helpers much like those of any other bishop: priests for house-churches, deacons for charitable assistance and catechesis, and notaries or secretaries for correspondence and record keeping.
Continued- http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=2200