A new year, in the Church as elsewhere, is a time to take stock of past progress and evaluate future prospects. In the Vatican, as the Christmas festivities recede and the activities of the Curia resume their normal pace, all eyes are on Pope Francis at the start of what promises to be a decisive 12 months of his pontificate.

In less than three months Francis will begin the fourth year of a reign which has been in many ways dramatic and unpredictable. The outgoing year has seen the nature of his theological and pastoral outlook become clearer and his vision and priorities for the governance of the Church have undoubtedly come into sharper focus.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, little known outside Argentina until March 13, 2013, at first baffled many papal commentators. Careful observation of his decisions and public statements, combined with testimonies from those who knew him of old, has by now enabled them to put together a reasonably coherent narrative without diminishing his capacity to surprise. In 2016, Francis faces decisions which will be crucial in giving to that narrative what may well become its definitive shape.

One thing clear from the start was that Francis was elected in part to satisfy a growing consensus among the cardinals that the Roman Curia needed deep and thorough reform. The declining years of St John Paul II had allowed the machinery of government in the Vatican — a complex body notoriously prone to allowing the intrigues of some to hinder its mission of service to the Pope and the wider Church — to become ever more resistant to reform.

Benedict XVI, always more of an intellectual than an administrator despite his long service at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had clearly not succeeded in his desire to reform the Curia by taking power out of the hands of the diplomats, who had previously been dominant, and favouring men of doctrine whom he knew and trusted. The resulting resentments only allowed factional infighting to burgeon, and led to accusations of incompetence and corruption in which it was all but impossible to disentangle the truth from self-serving slander.

Read the article “The Pope’s Agonizing Dilemma” on catholicherald.co.uk.