Leo XIV has returned to the Vatican after a month-long vacation in Castel Gandolfo, and a series of important decisions await him. They aren’t all urgent matters, but what he decides in each of them will tell us a lot about how the Pope intends to shape his pontificate.
These decisions will be subjected to the scrutiny of many, starting with those in the Vatican who continue to champion Pope Francis’s decisions around curial reform.
The risk is that the Pope will soon find himself facing pushback over upcoming nominations and organization of the Roman Curia. There may even be some chatter — some of it from those in high places — about abandonment or betrayal of Pope Francis’s curial reform project as expressed in his 2022 Apostolic Constitution, Praedicate Evangelium.
So, what are these decisions?
First, several dicastery heads have already reached retirement age and will need to be replaced.
They are: the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro; the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, Cardinal Arthur Roche; the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch; and the prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and
