The Apostolic Constitution "Preach the Gospel" (Praedicate Evangelium)

With an Appraisal of Francis's Reform of the Roman Curia by Massimo Faggioli

Promulgated by Pope Francis

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ISBN: 9780814668535, 6853

Details: 176 pgs, 5 x 8 x 1/2
Publication Date: 09/07/2022

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2023 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Future Church

Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel) is one of the most important legislative acts that Pope Francis has promulgated since his election in 2013. In addition to the full text of this new constitution, this book features world-renowned theologian Massimo Faggioli’s explanation of the significance and limitations of this document. Bringing his unique insight as an Italian church historian, Faggioli explains how the constitution tries to apply, in a way that is different from the reforms of both Paul VI in 1967 and John Paul II in 1988, the ecclesiology of Vatican II to the structure and culture of the Roman Curia. It puts into motion many different aspects of the whole pontificate of Francis, including his desire for more diversity in the college of cardinals, decentralization of papal power, the reform of the economic and financial institutions of the Vatican, and the necessary structure to manage the global clergy abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Massimo Faggioli is professor of historical and contemporary ecclesiology at the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin and the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, and a contributing editor for Commonweal. He is an internationally-established scholar in the area of Vatican II and the papacy especially, and a renowned public commentator on church affairs. Among his books with Liturgical Press are The Legacy and Limits of Vatican II in an Age of Crisis (2025); True Reform: Liturgy and Ecclesiology in Sacrosanctum Concilium (2012); Pope John XXIII: The Medicine of Mercy (2014); and Sorting Out Catholicism: A Brief History of the New Ecclesial Movements (2014).

ISBN: 9780814668535, 6853

Details: 176 pgs, 5 x 8 x 1/2
Publication Date: 09/07/2022

Reviews

“Massimo Faggioli presents the historical and theological context for intelligently understanding Pope Francis’s reform of the Roman Curia, an institution many popes have tried to reform with limited success.”

Thomas J. Reese, SJ

“As Massimo Faggioli’s masterful historical survey of the Roman Curia shows, reforming the oldest bureaucracy in the western world is like cleaning the Egyptian sphinx with a toothbrush. Plenty of proposals for change have gone nowhere and some Popes have found taming the unwieldy curia impossible. Faggioli expertly provides the theological context for understanding Pope Francis’ cleaning and repurposing of the church’s central government and how it implements the vision of the Second Vatican Council. This book offers an insightful, honest and must-read assessment of one of the most ambitious reforms of the Francis papacy.”

Christopher Lamb, Vatican Correspondent for The Tablet and author of The Outsider: Pope Francis and His Battle to Reform the Church

"Professor Faggioli offers a valuable and well-informed historical and theological appraisal of Pope Francis’s reform of the Roman Curia and its implications for a new structure of service for a more missionary Church. He skillfully situates his assessment of Praedicate Evangelium in the historical and theological reform of the Curia beginning in 1588 with Pope Sixtus through the election of Pope Francis. The author demonstrates how the apostolic constitution reflects Pope Francis’s vision of the Church and the ecclesiology of Vatican Council II considering a more global Church 'walking together' in synodality. Structured on Francis’s core values of service to the pope, co-responsibility, and service to the ministry of bishops, local churches, and episcopal conferences, Praedicate Evangelium presents a blueprint for reform that calls for structural change as well as spiritual and cultural conversion."

Sister Sharon Euart, RSM, JCD, Executive Director, Resource Center for Religious Institutes

“The new legislation on the organization of the Roman Curia, put in place by Pope Francis, is yet another step in its evolution. Massimo Faggioli puts this reform in a historical-theological context and immerses his readership in a breathtaking crash course on the development of this centuries old institution and the problems that are inherent to its functioning.”

Kurt Martens, The Catholic University of America

"A very focused text analysis of a particular document written by an author with an extensive background in Church history. It is an engaging text that brings together both the seriousness of historical analysis with some gossipy, if you will, pieces."

Catholic Media Association

"This book provides the entire English translation of the Constitution as well as Massimo Faggioli's historical-theological introduction to it."

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