Vatican City, Jun 13, 2018 / 06:22 am
In their latest round of meetings, Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals has finished and approved the first draft of what will be a new apostolic constitution outlining the role and functions of the Roman Curia.
The tentative title of the document is "Predicatae Evangelium," meaning "Preach the Gospel." The new constitution will eventually replace "Pastor Bonus," the apostolic constitution issued by St. John Paul II in 1988, which currently governs the Roman Curia.
In comments to the press, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the title of the new constitution is subject to change, as is the rest of the text, a first draft of which was voted on and presented to Pope Francis by his Council of Cardinals during their June 11-13 meeting at the Vatican.
Burke stressed that there is "a lot of work to do still" on the text, and that right now the cardinals "are refining" it. The pope, he said, will make whatever changes he sees fit and "can give it to whomever he wants as an expert" for either opinions or contributions.