Understanding Pope Francis – Pope Francis and Cardinal George Pell

This week Pope Francis issued a motu proprio letter, that is a decree “on his own initiative,” entitled Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens. The title is taken from the following passage of St. Luke’s Gospel: “And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”(12:42-43).
The letter established a number of new curial bodies, including a Council for the Economy, a Secretariat for the Economy, and an office of Auditor General. In a press release, the Vatican said the new bodies represented “a new coordination structure for economic and administrative affairs of the Holy See and the Vatican State” and explained “The Secretariat for the Economy will implement policies determined by a new Council for the Economy – a 15-member council comprised of eight cardinals or bishops, reflecting various parts of the world and seven lay experts of different nationalities with strong professional financial experience. The Council will meet on a regular basis and to consider policies and practices and to prepare and analyse reports on the economic-administrative activities of the Holy See.”
Recently, the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See (in Italian, the acronym reads COSEA) advised the pope that some changes needed to be made toward greater financial transparency and generally accepted management standards. Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens was in direct response to those concerns, and is being viewed as quite revolutionary in some circles.
Francis named 72-year old Cardinal George Pell as the prefect of the newly formed body, calling the prominent archbishop of Sydney to Rome from Australia. Like so much else, this decision serves as a corrective to the distorted image of Francis sometimes presented elsewhere in the media. While it is true that Francis gave Cardinal Walter Kasper a prominent role in recent conversations about divorced and remarried Catholics in regard to the Eucharist, he followed it up by naming Pell to this high-profile position. These two figures, both loyal and devoted servants of the church and men of God I have no doubt, have not historically agreed on every prudential application of church governance and practice. The fact that the pope continues to listen to a variety of voices within and outside of the church is to my mind a positive. The community of faith is a big tent affair (in more technical language circumamicta varietate, or as James Joyce famously put it in “Finnegan’s Wake”: “Catholic means ‘Here Comes Everybody'”). Francis continues to humbly (but briskly!) walk along his path of discipleship-in-action, reinvigorating the church and its commitment to the poor, and not slowing down to worry about whether he is perceived to be a “progressive” or a “traditionalist.”

Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., of Collingswood, is a Research Associate at Durham University’s Centre for Catholic Studies in Northeast England.