With a Motu Proprio, Pope Leo XIV has abrogated Article 8 n. 1 of the previous Fundamental Law of Vatican City State, which had allowed only cardinals to serve as president of the Commission, a position currently held by Sister Raffaella Petrini. The Pope, therefore, consolidates a change wanted by Francis and resolves an issue that had emerged due to increasingly \u201ccomplex and pressing\u201d governance needs.<\/p>\n
By Salvatore Cernuzio<\/b><\/p>\n
Not only cardinals but also \u201cother members\u201d may serve as president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, and therefore laymen or women as well. This is established by a Motu Proprio of Pope Leo XIV, published on Friday, 21 November, which abrogates Article 8 n. 1, of the Fundamental Law promulgated in June 2023, in light of governance needs that have become \u201cincreasingly complex and pressing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 1 March 2025, by the will of Pope Francis, a religious sister, Sr Raffaella Petrini, has served as president of the Pontifical Commission of Vatican City State and of the Governorate. She is the first woman to hold this dual role, which includes the exercise of legislative and administrative authority within Vatican City State.<\/p>\n
The new article <\/p>\n
The Holy See Press Office’s bulletin of 25 February 2025, concerning the appointment of the Secretary Generals of the Governorate, had already clarified that Pope Francis had modified the Fundamental Law of Vatican City State. Today\u2019s publication of the Motu Proprio of Leo XIV therefore consolidates the change introduced by his predecessor.<\/p>\n
More specifically, Article 8 n. 1, of the Fundamental Law previously stated: \u201cThe Pontifical Commission is composed of Cardinals, including the President, and of other members, appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.\u201d In the Motu Proprio published today, the article in question is abrogated and replaced with: \u201cThe Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State is composed of Cardinals and other members, including the President, appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.\u201d<\/p>\n
This modification opens the possibility that \u201cother members\u201d who are not cardinals\u2014such as laymen and women\u2014may lead the Commission.<\/p>\n
The Pope\u2019s decision <\/p>\n
Pope Leo explains his decision in the apostolic letter, stating that: \u201cThe Governorate is called to contribute, through its own structure, to the mission proper to Vatican City State, carrying out this task in service to the Successor of Peter, to whom it responds directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fulfilling this \u201cdemanding task,\u201d the Governorate exercises \u201ca form of co-responsibility within the communio, which,\u201d the Pope emphasises, \u201cis one of the principles guiding the service of the Roman Curia, as desired by Pope Francis and established in the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium<\/a> of 19 March 2022, and applicable also to Vatican City State.\u201d<\/p>\n This \u201cform of shared responsibility\u201d therefore makes \u201ctimely the consolidation of certain solutions developed thus far in response to governance needs that are proving increasingly complex and pressing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Motu Proprio, signed on 19 November but published today, enters into force immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a Motu Proprio, Pope Leo XIV has abrogated Article 8 n. 1 of the previous Fundamental Law…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":397527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[188426,50,3417,188427,3419,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-397526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-motu-proprio","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","11":"tag-reforms","12":"tag-vatican","13":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115594930842010688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}