Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias has been appointed coordinator of the study group that will evaluate the functioning and role of apostolic nuncios, the papal representatives in the Church worldwide. Source: Crux.
The study group will make suggestions to improve their functioning, so that they become more missionary and synodal.
Involved in the study will be officials of the Secretariat of State, the Dicastery for Bishops, and the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples.
After the October 2023 Session of the Synod on Synodality. Pope Francis had identified several items that needed specialised study.
“During the Synod we noticed that there were so many topics being spoken about, but they were important topics,” Cardinal Gracias said.
“However, we wanted to focus on synodality and were worried how to bring back synodality in the discussions. All the other points were also important,” he continued.
“Then the Holy Father also wanted some points to be discussed himself. Finally, they decided that they would take out Oriental Churches matter, formation of priests matter, questions of theological things etc.
“The Holy Father also felt that we should also look at the whole function of the Nuncio. That is the reason for this study group.”
Cardinal Gracias said the study on nuncios is one of 10 study groups, including a study on the appointment of bishops.
The Vatican communique clarified that some of the topics were chosen by Pope Francis himself. These subjects will not be discussed during the October 2024 Session of the Synod, but a brief report of the working plans of the group will be presented to the Synodal Assembly.
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Cardinal says Vatican study group to work on bringing Synodality to Papal Nuncios (By Nirmala Carvalho, Crux)
