The Roman Curia

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Click on Read More to go to the appropriate entry about the Curial department in Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.

The sources for the information on the page are: The Vatican website, EWTN.com and Catholic Hierarchy.org

Last updated on 17th September 2006

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Secretariat of State

Secretary of State: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone

The Secretariat is presided over by the cardinal secretary of state. It is composed of two sections, the First being the Section for General Affairs, under the direct control of the substitute, with the help of the assessor; the Second being the Section for Relations with States, under the direction of its own secretary, with the help of the undersecretary. Attached to this latter section is a council of cardinals and some bishops.

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First Section

Substitute for General Affairs: Archbishop Leonardo Sandri

Assessor: Monsignor Gabriele Giordano Caccia

It is the task of the First Section in a special way to expedite the business concerning the daily service of the Supreme Pontiff; to deal with those matters which arise outside the ordinary competence of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia and of the other institutes of the Apostolic See; to foster relations with those dicasteries and coordinate their work, without prejudice to their autonomy; to supervise the office and work of the legates of the Holy See, especially as concerns the particular Churches. This section deals with everything concerning the ambassadors of States to the Holy See. In consultation with other competent dicasteries, this section takes care of matters concerning the presence and activity of the Holy See in international organizations, without prejudice to art. 46. It does the same concerning Catholic international organisations.

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Second Section

Secretary for Relations with States: Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo

Undersecretary: Monsignor Pietro Parolin

The Section for Relations with States has the special task of dealing with heads of government.

to foster relations, especially those of a diplomatic nature, with States and other subjects of public international law, and to deal with matters of common interest, promoting the good of the Church and of civil society by means of concordats and other agreements of this kind, if the case arises, while respecting the considered opinions of the groupings of bishops that may be affected.

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The proper duty of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world; so it has competence in things that touch this matter in any way.

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The Congregation for the Oriental Churches considers those matters, whether concerning persons or things, affecting the Catholic Oriental Churches.

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The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments does whatever pertains to the Apostolic See concerning the regulation and promotion of the sacred liturgy, primarily of the sacraments, without prejudice to the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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The Congregation for the Causes of Saints deals with everything which, according to the established way, leads to the canonization of the servants of God.

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Congregation for the Clergy

Prefect: Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos
Secretary: Archbishop Csaba Ternyák
Prefect Emeritus: Cardinal Antonio Innocenti
Prefect Emeritus: Cardinal José Tomás Sánchez

Without prejudice to the right of bishops and their conferences, the Congregation for the Clergy examines matters regarding priests and deacons of the secular clergy, with regard to their persons and pastoral ministry, and with regard to resources available to them for the exercise of this ministry; and in all these matters the Congregation offers timely assistance to the bishops.

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Apostolic Penitentiary

Major Penitentiary: Cardinal James Francis Stafford
Major Penitentiary Emeritus : Cardinal William Wakefield Baum
Pro-Major Penitentiary Emeritus: Luigi de Magistris

  The competence of the Apostolic Penitentiary regards the internal forum and indulgences.
> For the internal forum, whether sacramental or non-sacramental, it grants absolutions, dispensations, commutations, validations, condonations, and other favours.
> The Apostolic Penitentiary sees to it that in the patriarchal basilicas of Rome there be a sufficient number of penitentiaries supplied with the appropriate faculties.
> This dicastery is charged with the granting and use of indulgences, without prejudice to the right of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to review what concerns dogmatic teaching about them.

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Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura

Prefect: Archbishop Agostino Vallini
Secretary: Bishop Velasio De Paolis

The Apostolic Signatura functions as the supreme tribunal and also ensures that justice in the Church is correctly administered.

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Pontifical Council for the Laity 

President: Archbishop Stanisław Ryłko
Secretary: Bishop Josef Clemens

The Pontifical Council for the Laity is competent in those matters pertaining to the Apostolic See regarding the promotion and coordination of the apostolate of the laity and, generally, in those matters respecting the Christian life of laypeople as such.

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Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

President: Cardinal Walter Kasper
Secretary: Bishop Brian Farrell, L.C.
Undersecretary Msgr. Eleuterio Fortino
President Emeritus: Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy
Secretary Emeritus: Pierre François Marie Joseph Duprey, M. Afr.

It is the function of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity to engage in ecumenical work through timely initiatives and activities, labouring to restore unity among Christians.

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Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

President: Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino
Secretary: Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi
President Emeritus: Cardinal Roger Marie Élie Etchegaray

The goal of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is to promote justice and peace in the world in accordance with the Gospel and the social teaching of the Church.

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Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care
of Migrants and Itinerant People

President: Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino
Secretary: Archbishop Agostino Marchetto
President Emeritus: Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao
Secretary Emeritus: Francesco Gioia, O.F.M. Cap.

The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People brings the pastoral concern of the Church to bear on the special needs of those who have been forced to leave their native land or who do not have one. It also sees to it that these matters are considered with the attention they deserve.

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Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance
to Health-Care Workers

President: Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán
Secretary: Bishop José Luis Redrado Marchite, O.H.
President Emeritus: Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini 

The Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers shows the solicitude of the Church for the sick by helping those who serve the sick and suffering, so that their apostolate of mercy may ever more effectively respond to people’s needs.

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Pontifical Council for the
Interpretation of Legislative Texts

President: Cardinal Julián Herranz Casado
Secretary: Bishop Bruno Bertagna

The function of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts consists mainly in interpreting the laws of the Church.

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Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue

President: Cardinal Paul Poupard
Secretary: Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata

The Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue fosters and supervises relations with members and groups of non-Christian religions as well as with those who are in any way endowed with religious feeling.

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Pontifical Council for Social Communications

President: Archbishop John Patrick Foley
President Emeritus: Cardinal Andrzej Maria Deskur
Secretary Emeritus: Pierfranco Pastore

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications is involved in questions regarding the means of social communication, so that, also by these means, human progress and the message of salvation may benefit secular culture and mores.

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Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers

The Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers shows the pastoral solicitude of the Church for those who do not believe in God or who profess no religion.

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January 22nd, 1506, is the official date of birth of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, because on that day, towards the evening, a group of one hundred and fifty Swiss soldiers commanded by Captain Kasparvon Silenen, of Canton Uri, passed through the Porta del Popolo and entered for the first time the Vatican, where they were blessed by Pope Julius II. The prelate Johann Burchard of Stras­bourg, Master of Pontifical Ceremonies at that time, and author of a famous chronicle, noted the event in his diary.

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Pontifical Commission for the
Cultural Heritage of the Church

President: Bishop Mauro Piacenza

The Commission for Cultural Patrimony [is] an independent organisation with its own president[. It] presid[es] over the guardianship of the historical and artistic patrimony of the entire Church (works of art, historical documents, books and everything kept in museums, libraries and archives); collaborating in the conservation of this patrimony with the individual Churches and their respective episcopal organisations; and promoting an ever greater awareness in the Church about these riches, in accordance with the Congregations for Catholic Education and for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

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Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei

President: Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos,
President Emeritus: Cardinal Angelo Felici
President Emeritus: Cardinal Paul Augustin Mayer

The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" was instituted by John Paul II with the Motu Proprio promulgated July 2nd, 1988, following the schismatic gesture of the illegal episcopal ordinations carried out by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre at Econe in Switzerland.

The Apostolic Letter indicates the goals of the commission. They are to collaborate with bishops, with the dicasteries of the Roman Curia and with other interested circles in order to facilitate the full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, communities or individual men and women religious linked, to date, in various ways, to the Fraternity founded by Msgr. Lefebvre who desire to remain united to the Successor of Peter in the Catholic Church, conserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions in the light of the Protocol signed May 5th, 1988 by Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Lefebvre.

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President: Mauro Piacenza
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President: Cardinal William Joseph Levada

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The function of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America is to be available to the particular Churches in Latin America, by counsel and by action, taking a keen interest in the questions that affect the life and progress of those Churches; and especially to help the Churches themselves in the solution of those questions, or to be helpful to those dicasteries of the Curia that are involved by reason of their competence.

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Pontifical Commission for Advocates (civil and canon lawyers)

President: Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda

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Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences

President: Mons. Walter Brandmuller
Secretary: Fr Vittorino Grossi, O.S.A.

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Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses

President: Cardinal Edouard Gagnon
Secretary: Fr Ferdinand Pratzner, S.S.S.

The Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses was constituted and erected in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII and... received approval of its updated Statutes in 1986 from Pope John Paul II. The purpose of this Committee consists “to make ever better known, loved and served, Our Lord Jesus Christ in his Eucharistic Mystery, as centre of the life of the Church and of its mission for the salvation of the world” through the celebration of International Eucharistic Congresses.

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Cultorum Martyrum

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Ecclesiastical Academy

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Pontifical Academy for Life

President: Doctor Juan de Dios Vial Correa
Vice-President: Bishop Elio Sgreccia

The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was founded by John Paul II in January 1994, with the Motu Proprio "Socialum Scientiarum." Its objective, says Article 1 of its statutes, is "to promote the study and progress of social, economic, political and juridical sciences in the light of the social doctrine of the Church."

The academy is autonomous and at the same time, maintains a very close relationship with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, with which it coordinates the planning of various initiatives. Its academicians are also named by the pope and their number cannot be fewer than 20, nor more than 40. Currently there are 31 members who come from 24 countries throughout the world, without distinction to religious denomination, and who are chosen for their high level of competency in some of the diverse social disciplines.

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Pontifical Academy of Science

President: Professor Nicola Cabibbo
Chancellary Director: Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is international in scope, multi-racial in composition, and non-sectarian in its choice of members. The work of the Academy comprises six major areas: Fundamental science; Science and technology of global problems; Science for the problems of the Third World; Scientific policy; Bioethics; Epistemology.

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Pontifical Academy of Social Science

President: Professor Mary Ann Glendon
Chancellary Director: Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo

The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was established by the Holy Father John Paul II on 1 January 1994... with the aim of promoting the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and political science. The Academy, through an appropriate dialogue, thus offers the Church the elements which she can use in the development of her social doctrine, and reflects on the application of that doctrine in contemporary society. The Academy, which is autonomous, maintains a close relationship with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

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Office of Papal Charities

Almoner of His Holiness: Archbishop Oscar Rizzato

This agency distributes funds to persons in need in and around Rome and throughout the world.

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Labour Office of the Apostolic See

President: N.A.
Vice-President: Archbishop Giovanni De Andrea

Responsible for labour relations of the Holy See with its employees. Settles labour issues which arise. Instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1989.

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