Mellino’s speech was published on May 9 in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. It included reflections on the role of laity, synodality, and the Roman Curia’s orientation toward service, as outlined in the apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium.
The new Vatican constitution, whose title means “Preach the Gospel,” was published on March 19 after nine years in production by the pope’s Council of Cardinals.
It replaces Pastor bonus, the apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1988, and later modified by popes Benedict and Francis.
Praedicate evangelium will take effect on June 5, the Solemnity of Pentecost.
In the constitution, Mellino said, bishops’ conferences “are not considered intermediate hierarchical structures, but rather bodies of subsidiarity, which do not interfere with the Petrine office or the governance of particular Churches.”
“They express and foster the exercise of ‘co-responsibility in the communio’ for the pastoral benefit and common good of the particular Churches through the joint exercise of certain functions proper to them,” he said.
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