In chapter II, on the “Principles and Criteria of Service to the Roman Curia,” we now read in paragraph two that “This reform proposes, in the spirit of a ‘healthy decentralization,’ to leave to the competence of the Pastors the faculty to resolve in the exercise of their ‘own task as teachers’ and pastors the questions they know well and which do not affect the unity of doctrine, discipline, and communion of the Church, always acting with that co-responsibility which is the fruit and expression of that specific mysterium communionis which is the Church.”
The previous version spoke of diocesan or eparchial Pastors, going on to give a further specification that is undoubtedly unnecessary because the Pastor is such in both the Latin and Eastern Churches.
Again, in Article 57 of the editio typica, in the section dedicated to the Dicastery for Evangelization, we read that the dicastery “assists and supports the initiatives of diocesan/eparchial bishops, episcopal conferences and Eastern hierarchical structures to announce the Gospel.”
In the earlier version, there was talk of support for bishops or eparchs. But “eparch” is only a title. It is not an alternative to that of bishop and it concerns how an ecclesiastical territory is defined. Hence the change in the text.
The editio typica also emphasizes that “it is up to the Doctrinal Section [of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith], through the Matrimonial Office, to examine, both in law and in fact, all that pertains to the ‘privilegium fidei.’”
The so-called Pauline privilege permits the dissolution of a marriage between two unbaptized persons. But in the first version of Article 74, there was no mention of the Matrimonial Office.
The Matrimonial Office has become part of the Doctrinal Section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose structure was recently reformed by Pope Francis. The older version of the constitution, it seems, overlooked the Matrimonial Office, which might suggest there was at one point some uncertainty about its future.
Finally, the editio typica’s Article 124, in the section dedicated to the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, has other minor changes. The constitution says that “the Dicastery deals with the issues of competence of the Apostolic See regarding the life and activity of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.” A series of examples are then given.
The old edition emphasized that the dicastery also dealt with the “confirmation of the members’ dismissal decree and the examination of the related appeals.” The new version only explains that the dicastery deals with “the examination of appeals against the decree of dismissal of members.” In practice, the dicastery takes a more central role.
A final curiosity is that in the first version, the Roman Curia was written as “Curia romana” without the second capital letter. In the editio typica, the capital letters have been restored, as no doubt befits an institution that has always held such importance in the Vatican.
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