Vatican defends hasty rollout of revolutionary laity reform

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Vatican officials are defending the last-minute rollout of Pope Francis’ long-awaited reform of the Holy See bureaucracy while also painting it as one of the most consequential of his pontificate. The new apostolic constitution “Proclaiming the Gospel” was released Saturday after nine years of work with no advance warning and only in Italian. It replaces the previous 1988 founding blueprint of the Holy See which had made clear that only ordained priests, bishops and cardinals can head Vatican offices because they alone enjoyed the “power of governance” in the Catholic Church. Francis’ reform makes clear that any member of the faithful, male or female, can now head a Vatican office.