Decentralisation in the Roman Curia

Abstract

Decentralisation and subsidiarity are principles that Pope Francis repeatedly urges when it comes to reforms in the Catholic Church. One of these reforms was that of the Roman Curia, which the Pope completed in 2022 with the Apostolic Constitution ‘Praedicate Evangelium’. The author examines specific passages of this law to determine the extent to which the principles in question have been implemented. Despite remarkable improvements, he concludes that this occurred to a rather limited extent. He sees the reason for this in the fact that the two principles were actually subordinated to another, namely in terms of co-responsibility.