Roman Curia

The secretary of state also heads the Roman Curia, the Church's central administration.

He helped promote clerics in his and John Paul II’s mold in the Roman curia, the bureaucracy that runs the church, as well as in dioceses and orders around the world.

The group rejected the Vatican's dominance arguing that Catholics should have the freedom to question the decisions of the Roman Curia - the Vatican departments that help run the Church.

Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia to again put the cardinals, bishops and priests who work in the Holy See on notice that they are by no means beyond reproach and are, in fact, particularly vulnerable to evil.

He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures within the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy, as head of the department that oversees and vets bishops.