What does Leo think about lay governance?

Pope Leo last week made his largest slate of curial appointments to-date. Coming a little more than a year since his election, the pope reshuffled the senior positions of four dicasteries and most notably, named his second female prefect to lead a Vatican department.

Having previously named Maria Montserat Alvarado as the incoming prefect of the Dicastery for Communications, Leo announced Sister Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, as the new prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Just as significantly, though, the pope appointed a cardinal pro-prefect, Cardinal Fabio Baggio, to serve alongside Smerilli. The double appointment, and indeed the actual nature of the role for a “pro-prefect”, has not been given an official or public explanation by the Holy See, and has been more or less left to speak for itself.

But what it actually says may be to rearticulate an unanswered question left by Francis-era reforms to the curia, and a simmering debate about the concepts of power and governance and sacramental authority in the Church.

Having so far sent mixed signals on the issue, how Leo eventually answers that question and resolves that debate, either explicitly through a papal act or implicitly through his