Pope reforms ‘school of Nuncios’

By Salvatore Cernuzio 

In a new chirograph entitled “The Petrine Ministry,” Pope Francis has updated the path of formation for students of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, known as the Accademia, which, for over 300 years, has trained “generations of priests who have placed their vocation at the service of the Petrine ministry by serving in the Papal Representations and the Secretariat of State.” 

The new academic program aims at providing a “solid” and “ongoing” formation to enable papal representatives to carry out their diplomatic mission to countries around the world and to face the challenges of a constantly changing world, to ensure the “fundamental” qualities of “attentive listening, witness, a fraternal approach, and dialogue,” are ever present in those who serve in the Nunciatures.

It is precisely for the students of the Academy, even more than for the institution itself, that the Pope's reform is designed, which through small changes and minor adjustments aims to strengthen the exercise of the “gift of the priesthood” for those who are called to the “constant effort to bring the closeness of the Pope to peoples and Churches.”

“The aim,” according to a statement from the Holy See, “is to provide the students - young priests from dioceses all over the world - with a complete and suitable preparation for the diplomatic mission entrusted to them by the Holy See.”

The statement goes on to explain that “The programme of formation proposed for future Pontifical Representatives combines theoretical skills with an approach to work and a lifestyle capable of guaranteeing a profound understanding of the complex dynamics of international relations.”

This decision "forms part of a broader vision of updating and enhancing ecclesiastical studies in accordance with international standards characteristic of higher education."

The training itinerary outlined for the future Pontifical Representatives combines theoretical skills with a working method and lifestyle capable of guaranteeing a profound understanding of the complex dynamics of international relations,’ explains the Holy See's note. And it points out, among the main novelties of the Chirograph, the establishment of the Academy as an Institute ad instar Facultatis for the study of Diplomatic Sciences; that is, “the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy has been reconfigured as an Institute of higher academic training in the field of Diplomatic Sciences.” This decision, it continues, “is part of a broader vision of updating and strengthening ecclesiastical studies in accordance with the international standards of higher education.

With this reform, the Academy “will confer the academic degrees of Second and Third Cycle in Diplomatic Sciences. which include studies in the disciplines of law, history, politics and economics, as well as languages used in international relations and relevant areas of study.”

Even more in detail, the papal document explains that “care shall be taken to ensure that the programmes of instruction have a close connection with the ecclesiastical disciplines, the praxis of the Roman Curia, the needs of the local Churches and, more broadly, with the work of evangelization, the Church’s activity and its relationship with culture and human society.”

According to Pope Francis, these are, “additional constituent elements of the diplomatic activity of the Apostolic See and of its ability to operate, to mediate, to overcome barriers and thus to develop concrete paths of dialogue and negotiation for guaranteeing peace and freedom of religion for all believers, and order among nations.”

Already in February 2020, Pope Francis had intervened on the Ecclesiastical Academy's formation program, stipulating by means of a Letter that the curriculum must include “a year entirely dedicated to missionary service” in the Churches of Asia, Africa, and Latin America – a sort of “apprenticeship” to broaden knowledge of the different ecclesial realities in the world and discourage any temptation to careerism.

In the same vein, with the new chirograph Pope Francis offers further instruction for those who remain “the vigilant and lucid eye of the Successor of Peter for the Church and the world,” even at times when it seems that “when the shadows of evil appear to infuse every action with confusion and distrust.”

Papal diplomats, the Pope notes, carry out “a pastoral activity that reflects their priestly spirit, their human qualities and their professional abilities.” Additionally, “the mission entrusted to the Pope’s diplomats includes representing him before public authorities,” which “manifests the effective exercise of that innate and independent right of legation that is also an element of the Petrine office and whose exercise is to be respected by the rules of international law that are basic to the life of the community of nations.” In our time, the Pope says, “it is clear that this service is no longer limited to those countries where the presence of the Church has long been grounded in the preaching of the Gospel, but is also carried out in places where it is a new and growing community, or in international forums where, through its representatives, the See of Peter closely follows debates, evaluates arguments and, in the light of its specific ethical and religious dimension, proposes an appraisal of the great issues involving the present and future of the human family.”

Therefore, “It is not simply a matter of providing a high level of academic and scientific education, but of ensuring that their activity will be ecclesial, necessarily called to engage with the reality of our world, ‘especially in a time like our own, marked as it is by rapid, constant and far-reaching changes in the fields of science and technology,’” the Pope says, citing his own Apostolic Constitution, Veritatis Gaudium.

And so, the Pope says, “It is not enough for them merely to acquire theoretical knowledge, but it is necessary to develop an approach to work and a lifestyle that can enable them to understand the deeper dynamics of international relations and to be respected for their approach to the aspirations and difficulties that an increasingly synodal Church must face.”