Two weeks before starting his duties as the new Vatican secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone declared that a reform at the Roman Curia is very likely to happen, in order to make it “smaller and more agile.”

In an interview published by Il Giornale, a Milan newspaper, Cardinal Bertone noted that in the last fifty years “two reforms of the Roman Curia have been conducted, one right after the Second Vatican Council, by Pope Paul VI and another one by Pope John Paul II”.

“After almost two decades, he added, an evaluation of how the dicasteries are organized is more than comprehensible, in order to reflect on how to make the existing structures more efficient for the mission of the Church and eventually to consider whether all of them should be maintained.”

The Cardinal also pointed out that he is “optimistic” in the face of the duties he will assume in two weeks, duties which will make him the closest cooperator with Pope Benedict XVI in the government of the Church.