The central Church’s justice institutions as statedin the Pope Francis’s “Praedicate Evangelium”Apostolic Constitution

Abstract

Since the Second Vatican Council, consecutive Bishops of Rome have been undertaking a reform of the Roman Curia. In 1967, Pope Paul VI carried out such a reform based on the Regimini Ecclesiae universae Apostolic Constitution. In 1983, a year after the post-council Canon Law was promulgated Pope John Paul II carried out a similar reform by announcing the Pastor bonus Apostolic Constitution in 1988. Also, Pope Francis followed his steps. He reformed the Holy See’s administrative apparatus by introducing the Praedicate Evangelium Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia and its service for the Church. The constitution has been in force since June 5, 2022. The pre amble of the latest Apostolic Constitution as well as the formulated rules and criteria of service in the Roman Curia show an evangelic spirit of the reform that all the Curia units, including the justice institutions, ought to be imbued. Independent from each other, the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature and the Tribunal of the Roman Rota have remained the Roman Curia’s ordinary justice institutions. The document includes clarifications of the theological, formal and legal nature that improve work of the institution of Curia and direct them towards  “providing assistance for the successor of St. Peter in holding his highest pastoral office for good and in service of the Universal Church and particular churches.”