By Cindy Wooden • Catholic News Service • Posted December 3, 2013

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis and the eight members of his international Council of Cardinals have begun their discussions on specific ways to reorganize the Roman Curia with the aim of “a renewal that will truly be a service to the universal church,” the Vatican spokesman said.

On the second day of the council’s Dec. 3-5 meeting, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, said the cardinals planned to discuss the work of each congregation and, hopefully, each pontifical council. They had begun, he said, with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

Father Lombardi had told reporters Dec. 3, “They have to start somewhere,” but declined to provide more information about why the congregation responsible for liturgy was the first to be examined.

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Spanish media have reported that Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, congregation prefect, will conclude his five-year appointment Dec. 9 and could be named the next archbishop of Madrid.

The Vatican spokesman continued to insist journalists and other observers should not expect changes to the curia to be announced quickly because Pope Francis and the Council of Cardinals were committed to a complete overhaul of Vatican structures “in light of the expectations expressed by the College of Cardinals before the conclave” that elected Pope Francis in March.

The pope and his Council of Cardinals, named in April, were not planning “to make amendments or limited adjustments” to Blessed John Paul II’s 1988 document on the Roman Curia, but rather expected to draft a completely new apostolic constitution.

The eight cardinals and the pope held their first full meeting in October and looked primarily at the role of the Vatican secretary of state since Archbishop Pietro Parolin was about to take over from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The cardinals’ council met briefly with Archbishop Parolin late Dec. 3 to congratulate him and offer their support, Father Lombardi said, but he was not involved in the council’s work.

When Pope Francis named the cardinals to advise him, Father Lombardi said, he did not choose them as continental representatives; however, their positions have allowed them to attend meetings of different bishops’ conferences and to continue collecting suggestions and concerns from bishops in their parts of the world.

While the council does not include the head of any Vatican congregation or council, he said, officials of the Roman Curia responded to an invitation to send their ideas and questions to the council.

In addition, the spokesman said, “the pope meets regularly and often with the heads of dicasteries (the Vatican offices), and these meetings go on for some time.”

“It’s not like they’ve been forgotten,” Father Lombardi said. “They have easy access to the Holy Father.”

Father Lombardi, who spoke with council members during their morning break on the first day of the Dec. 3-5 meeting, said they emphasized that they were looking “in depth” at the curia and ways of restructuring it, not at “small touch ups.”

Father Lombardi said given the depth of what the council is trying to do, “I wouldn’t expect any conclusions in a brief period of time.”

The council members begin their day concelebrating an early morning Mass with Pope Francis in the chapel of his residence. After breakfast, the meetings take place from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. in a small room near the chapel. Pope Francis was expected to attend all the sessions, although not the morning of Dec. 4, when he held his weekly general audience.

The next meeting of the council with the pope is scheduled for Feb. 17-18, Father Lombardi said. The meeting will be right before a likely gathering of the entire College of Cardinals with Pope Francis on the eve of the Feb. 22 consistory at which Pope Francis plans to create new cardinals.

Pope Francis may use the gathering of the entire College of Cardinals as an opportunity to inform them of the council’s work to that point, Father Lombardi said.

The pope has asked his eight cardinal advisers for counsel on the Vatican’s finances, which is likely to be the theme of the February meeting, Father Lombardi said.

The reorganization of the Roman Curia and improved relations between local bishops and the Vatican were key topics at the meetings of the College of Cardinals preceding the election of Pope Francis in March.

The eight members of his council are: Cardinals Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa, retired archbishop of Santiago, Chile; Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo; Sean P. O’Malley of Boston; George Pell of Sydney; Giuseppe Bertello, president of the commission governing Vatican City State; and Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.