Pope Leo XIV has promulgated two major normative texts that update the internal governance of the Roman Curia
Newsroom (25/11/2025 Gaudium Press )The “General Regulation of the Roman Curia” and the “Regulation of Personnel of the Roman Curia” were signed by the Pontiff on Sunday, 23 November 2025 — the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe — and published the following day in L’Osservatore Romano. Both texts will enter into force on 1 January 2026 and are approved ad experimentum for five years.
The new regulations fully incorporate the reforms introduced by Pope Francis in the 2022 Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which restructured the Curia with a stronger missionary emphasis and clearer lines of coordination.
Key elements of the General Regulation include:
- Detailed procedures for consistories, meetings of curial heads, interdicasterial commissions, plenary and ordinary sessions of individual dicasteries, and the internal “Congress” and “Consulta” of each institution.
- Reinforced coordination role of the Secretariat of State and rules for the preparation, review, and publication of curial documents.
- Updated norms on hierarchical appeals, relations with particular churches, ad limina visits, use of languages (with a new Latin-language office in the Secretariat of State), archives, and IT systems.
The Personnel Regulation establishes a unified employment framework for all who serve in the Secretariat of State, dicasteries, judicial bodies, economic organisms, and connected institutions. Among its main provisions:
- Ten functional levels for staff, with clear qualification requirements and a prohibition on hiring close relatives in the same institution.
- Five-year renewable terms for most appointments; stricter vetting and transparency declarations (building on Pope Francis’s 2021 motu proprio on financial transparency).
- 36-hour standard working week, part-time possibilities, detailed rules on probation, fixed-term contracts, missions, holidays (158 hours annually), sick leave, maternity leave, and disciplinary procedures.
- A reinforced ecclesial character of curial service, with obligations of exemplary moral conduct, professional secrecy, and restrictions on external activities incompatible with Church doctrine.
The texts stress that service in the Roman Curia is an “ecclesial service, marked by a pastoral and missionary character” and must reflect the universal nature of the Church, encouraging personnel from diverse geographical origins.
With these regulations, Pope Leo XIV completes the legal implementation of Praedicate Evangelium three years after its promulgation, providing the Curia with modernised governance and labour norms while preserving its specific identity as a body at the service of the Successor of Peter and the universal Church.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican.va
Related Images:
