Fr. Z's Blog

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Father,
Thank you ALWAYS for your vocation and your continued guidance of so many souls. I am deeply grateful!
I am trying to wrap my head around the recent installment of two women (one lay and one religious) as heads of Dicasteries. This follows on Pope Francis’ installment of Sister Nathalie Becquart as undersecretary of the Synod (and incidentally the first woman voting member). How do we approach and understand this as NOT a rupture and not an innovation? Are these dicasteries separate enough from the teaching authority of the Magisterium that it doesn’t matter?

One needs to know what a “dicastery” is.

Before 2022, keep in mind that all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares.

A dicastery is the broader term: a department or major organ of the Roman Curia.

Until 2022 a congregation was, one particular kind of dicastery. Under Pastor Bonus in 1988, “dicasteries” included the Secretariat of State, Congregations, Tribunals, Councils, and Offices. So, in the older system, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was a dicastery, but the Roman Rota was also a dicastery of a different type.   They had a hierarchy.  The congregations had juridical sections.  They were headed by bishops, usually also cardinals.  The members were Cardinals and bishops.

Since 2002 Praedicate Evangelium the official terminology has changed. The Roman Curia is now described as being composed of the Secretariat of State, the Dicasteries, and other Institutions, “all juridically equal among themselves.” The old “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” for example, is now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.  It was once “La Suprema”.  Now its “La ‘Meh'”.

In the old system, congregations tended to have stronger executive and disciplinary competence, while councils were often more pastoral, promotional, or consultative.

As far as the Synod is concerned, there is a female (ergo non-ordained) under-secretary.

So what?  Big deal.

Does the office of the Synod have any jurisdiction or legislative power, exercise of both requiring sacred orders?

No, not in the ordinary sense. The present office is the General Secretariat of the Synod, and its ordinary role is administrative, coordinative, consultative, and preparatory. It is “a permanent institution at the service of the Synod of Bishops” and is “directly subject to the Roman Pontiff.” Its stated competence is the preparation and implementation of Synod Assemblies, plus other questions the Pope may entrust to it.  Can. 343 says that the Synod of Bishops discusses questions and expresses its wishes, but does not resolve them or issue decrees, unless the Roman Pontiff grants it deliberative power; even then, the Pope must ratify the decisions. The General Secretariat does not possess ordinary legislative power as a Curial office. Praedicate Evangelium states generally that a Curial institution “cannot issue laws or general decrees having the force of law” or derogate from universal law, except in individual and particular cases with papal approval in forma specifica.

Hence, is consultative. The legislative authority remains with the Roman Pontiff, or with those who possess legislative power according to law. The Synod office does not legislate on its own.

So a woman is in the leadership of the Synod, and as a voting member.  So what?  So what is, how does a non-ordained person of either sex have a the ability to VOTE in a Synod of BISHOPS.

Also, a religious sister was appointed as the Dicastery for the Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

Does the Dicastery for the Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development have any legislative power or jurisdiction?

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has no ordinary legislative power.

Its proper field is chiefly promotional, pastoral, coordinative, and consultative: human dignity, human rights, health, justice and peace, economy and work, care for creation, migration, humanitarian emergencies, and the study and dissemination of Catholic social doctrine. It supports particular Churches and episcopal conferences rather than governing them as a superior ordinary.

The Dicastery is competent regarding Caritas Internationalis and the International Catholic Migration Commission, according to their statutes, and it exercises responsibilities reserved to the Holy See in establishing and supervising certain international charitable associations and funds.

So this Dicastery cannot make universal or general Church law. It can act administratively within the competence assigned to it by papal law, statutes, or special mandate, regarding matters and institutions expressly entrusted to it. It does not have general jurisdiction over diocesan bishops, episcopal conferences, or the faithful in the way a diocesan bishop governs his diocese or the Pope governs the universal Church.

Hence, you can pull any person off the street to be the head of this office.  He/she would not have governance in this dicastery that could require the sacred orders required for governance.  They can “administrate” entities that aren’t operated under the aegis of orders, even if their heads are clerics, as is usually the case with Caritas (a Cardinal).

Other “dicasteries” such as Doctrine of the Faith, Bishops, Clergy, Worship, etc., are an entirely different matter from these … Mickey Mouse Club chapters.

Congregations (of those in sacred orders) were a vastly superior concept, completely contrary to the view of the Church as an evolving NGO.

Female (non-ordained) heads of dicasteries.

Innovation?  Of course.

Rupture?   Of course.

Such are the times we are in.

I write this three hours before the SSPX begins the consecration of bishops without papal mandate on the basis that the Church is in a state of emergency.

Just sayin’.