Pope Leo XIV to move forward with Vatican reforms, says Cardinal

Pope Leo will announce reforms to the Roman Curia in the autumn, Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols has predicted, saying that one of the reasons the Pope was elected was that he knew the Church’s administration from the inside. And according to the Cardinal, discussions among cardinals at the time of the Pope’s election in May focused on the continuing problems of the Curia.
Cardinal Nichols made his remarks after giving the St George’s House annual lecture in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Addressing an invited audience, which included the Princess Royal, he talked about the need for hope, the place of religion in a secular society, and encouraging signs of young people’s growing interest in the Catholic faith – what he called “a response to the spiritual side of our human nature”.
Cardinal Nichols, who was one of the 133 cardinal electors who chose Cardinal Robert Prevost to be the next Pope, said that the General Congregations held with both the cardinal electors and the cardinals too old to vote, highlighted the qualities they believed the next Pope needed – and Prevost clearly had them all.
They believed that the successor to the throne of Peter needed to evangelise – and Prevost was a member of a missionary order; he needs intellectual ability – and Prevost was a scholar; that he needed to be aware of the world’s needs – and Prevost as leader of his own Augustinian order twice had travelled the world; that he was a pastoral leader – he had been bishop of a poor diocese; and he had curial experience – he had been prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops from 2023.
“I do think nobody else had all that experience”, he told the audience, “So that is why the voting [in the conclave] did not take long,” referring to Pope Leo being elected on the second day of the conclave and reaching the two thirds majority required for election on the fourth ballot. “A lot our discussion was about addressing the Curia”.