Main excerpts of the new piece by Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci -- including an important update on the major "Bergoglianist" Cardinal Czerny and also changes in the personnel of pontifical liturgical ceremonies:
Pope Leo XIV has initiated a major generational change in the Church’s central governing apparatus, the Roman Curia.
This change began in the Secretariat of State this past week, with the appointments of Anthony Onyemucho Ekpo as assessor and Mihăiţă Blaj as undersecretary for Foreign Affairs of the Secretariat of State, the key and central body of the Roman Curia. It will extend to various Vatican dicasteries until we have a new slate of churchmen – Leo’s men – in key positions throughout the governing apparatus. The process could take a while, and perhaps run even through most of 2026.
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[...]Ekpo’s choice also suggests profound changes at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Ekpo was undersecretary, and the current prefect, Cardinal Michael Czerny, will soon turn 80. Czerny was one of the symbols of Pope Francis’s “revolution,” and a guardian of the revolution himself. And it was Czerny who carried on Francis’s legacy by organizing Leo XIV’s meeting with popular movements, and also by directing Leo XIV’s address on the issue, which was deeply imbued with Bergoglian spirituality.
Starting with the undersecretary, however, the dicastery could undergo a major transformation, pending a new president, who could also provide a new direction. Until now, the dicastery has focused on the old Migrants and Refugees section, losing many of the old characteristics it had when it was the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
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Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the current Master of Papal Ceremonies, also seems ready for a transfer to a diocese, because the Pope would like to choose someone closer to his sensibilities and does not appreciate the idea of an archbishop as an “altar boy.”
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(Full article, at Monday Vatican)
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Also, a very important administrative task was completed this week with the new full Regulations of the Roman Curia: for the first time, there is one just on procedures and order, and a different one for personnel.
These are the links: texts of the Regulation for Personnel (in Italian) and General Regulations of the Curia (in Italian).
One important historic change is the end of Latin as the standard language of Curial documents (which had been already been the case in practice since the beginning of the Francis pontificate). Title XIII of the new General Regulations states the following:
Title XIII
LANGUAGES IN USE
Art. 50
§1. As a rule, the curial institutions shall draft their acts in Latin or in another language.
§2. An office for the Latin language shall be established within the Secretariat of State, at the service of the Roman Curia.
§3. Care shall be taken to ensure that the principal documents intended for publication are translated into the languages most widely used today.
This strange text of section 1 of art. 50 makes it look like the words, "or in another language," were a later addition to the text -- since the first words remain, "as a rule." "As a rule" would only make sense if a language (Latin, as before, or any specific language) had been specified as the standard. As the text was published, "as a rule" makes little sense, since, "as a rule," documents can be in any language...
At least an "office for the Latin language" has been officially established at State for the whole of the Curia. Let us hope it will be more successful than recent attempts at promoting the language.
