Rome - Pope Leo XIV has done what many Roman parish priests had been waiting for for over a year: he has repaired a structural error that had paralyzed the diocese by bringing the five Prefectures of the Central Sector back under a single pastoral unit. A decisive, clear act, stripped of embellishments and devoid of that pneumatic language with which, in October 2024, Pope Francis had wrapped a measure that made no sense—neither pastorally nor administratively.
To understand the scope of today’s decision, one must return to that 2024 Motu Proprio, drafted - as Silere non possum repeatedly denounced - on the basis of the ideas and pressures of Renato Tarantelli, the vice–vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome. There had been no real consultation with parish priests, no communal discernment, no dialogue with those living the daily pastoral work in the neighborhoods. Only an ideological framework, a reform designed at a desk, as if Rome were a model to be reshaped according to the theories of some improvised urban planner.
The result had been an interminable document, a river of words without substance - similar, as Silere non possum immediately noted, to certain defensive briefs filed in court to confuse the judge: long, verbose, seemingly technical, yet poor in content. A defensive memorandum that, in the end, explains nothing. The difference is that, instead of citing rulings of the Court of Cassation or legal commentaries, this text brandished mercy, beauty, pastoral theology, even Russian literature. Speaking without saying anything is not merely a stylistic flaw: when one reorganizes the Pope’s diocese, vagueness turns into operational confusion, confusion becomes poor pastoral governance, and the lives of clergy and faithful turn into daily chaos. These are issues that never occur to someone who has never served as a parish priest and, having failed a legal career, redirected himself to the seminary only to be swiftly promoted bishop. After all, if someone was incapable of being a lawyer and ended up in seminary, there must be a reason. And indeed that document bore all the marks of someone who knows legal codes only by hearsay: verbosity without method, inflated concepts, futile metaphors.
Francis’s measure dismantled the Central Sector, scattering its Prefectures among the four cardinal sectors. The reform was presented as a “synodal” act, the fruit of “numerous interventions” and “requests already made.” Here honesty is required: those requests came from nowhere except Tarantelli’s desk. The parishes, invoked as if they had participated, knew nothing about it. The number of priests heard: zero. The overwhelming majority of Roman presbyters learned everything after the fact and were left stunned.
The core problem of the Motu Proprio La vera bellezza
The entire text of Francis rested on an unproven assumption: that central Rome was so isolated and self-referential that it needed to be dissolved and “distributed” among the other sectors. The Pope justified this with pages and pages of reflections on beauty, the history of the city, tourism, and the theology of encounter. All legitimate elements, but entirely disconnected from the real issue: the ordinary pastoral governance of the Central Sector is not reorganized with inspired prose, but with coherent administrative decisions. Invoking the “single center,” “bridges,” or “geographical synodality” did nothing to justify a reform that complicated parish life, blurred the chain of command, and effectively emptied the Central Sector of its historical and functional identity. The aim was to dismantle a sector; the motivations were patched together, vague, and generated frustration and chaos.
Leo XIV: the surgery of the essential
And so today, Leo XIV, who in recent months has been dismantling one weak norm after another - regulations so fragile they can barely hold together even with glue - has finally decided to end this season of confusion. With the Motu Proprio Immota Manet, just a few lines long yet surgically precise, the Pope restored what everyone had always known: the five Prefectures of the Central Sector form a natural, pastoral, and historical organic unity.
And if a measure must be corrected, it is corrected without embarrassment: “…I hereby establish and decree that the five Prefectures, from the First to the Fifth, shall again be part of a single Central Sector, which therefore rejoins the other four Sectors of the Diocese of Rome.” One sentence. Just one. And yet it was enough to topple an entire poorly built structure. And let it be clear: this is not an act against his predecessor, but the simple acknowledgment that the predecessor had been manipulated by Tarantelli, as Silere non possum has always reported. The Pope had been literally mesmerized by him and others in his circle—and he signed. The ones paying the price were the parish priests.
The Pope expresses it diplomatically, but he expresses it: some considerations in Francis’s text were tied to the forthcoming Jubilee, and they were contradicted by the Jubilee itself, which demonstrated that the Central Sector is homogeneous, specific, and indispensable as an autonomous pastoral unit. The priests of the Urbe now look to the future with hope and wish that Leo XIV will soon begin a true purification not only of norms but also of people. They are grateful because, finally, the Pope is once again devoting real attention to his own diocese and to his priests.
d.R.M.
Silere non possum
