Pope Francis has invited the leaders of the Roman curia to experience a time of personal retreat at the start of Lent, from February 18 to 23, 2024. But, what is the curia?
Curate, priest, clergy: is there only a Roman curia? The curia, the Church tells us in its glossary , is the set of organizations and “dicasteries responsible for assisting the pope in the government of the Church”. The curia has its origins in Roman Antiquity and comes from the Latin curia , that is to say courtyard, which designates the building in which the Senate met. The Church retains the term to apply it to the organizations which form the Roman pontifical government. The notion of curia can also be linked to the field of the diocese (diocesan curia) or the religious congregation (general curia).
The curia, a formal structure
Reorganized by Paul VI after the Second Vatican Council , the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus promulgated on June 28, 1988 specifies that “the Roman curia was created for a single purpose: to make the exercise of the office that Christ himself ever more effective. even entrusted to Peter and his successors” ( art. 3 ). It was Sixtus V who, in the Apostolic Constitution Immensa aeterni Dei of January 22, 1588, gave the Roman curia its formal structure. Fifteen dicasteries were then established to replace the old and only College of Cardinals. Each dicastery, limited to a specific area, is then placed under the authority of a cardinal, responsible for assisting the Pope in his apostolic mission. It was not until 1908 that Pope Pius X, in his apostolic constitution Sapienti consilio , transformed the constituent bodies of the curia into essentially administrative realities.
Assist the Pope in his apostolic mission
With the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI emphasizes, “the Church deepens its own mystery” to clarify its mission. The Pope thus specifies that “This increased self-knowledge on the part of the Church must quite naturally include an updating of the Roman curia, in conformity with our times”. It is the Apostolic Constitution Regimini Ecclesiae universae , published on August 15, 1967, which completes this overhaul initiated under the pontificate of Paul VI. If, originally, only cardinals were members of the curia, Paul VI made possible the election of priests from among its members, chosen for a period of five years. Each congregation, bodies which form the Roman curia, thus meets occasionally to reflect on the subjects that come to it, in order to allow all its members, who do not necessarily reside in Rome, to participate.
