ABSTRACT

Pope John's session, and his encyclicals, brought about a change in principle and mood. At the highest position of the Church, down through the majority of the Council of Bishops, the idea of reform had taken hold. No council in the Roman Catholic Church's history–there had been twenty previous ones–had been so well prepared. The Curia, although it makes the administrative wheels of the Church go round, is not the Church. It is a career service, organizational, jealous of its tasks and its traditions. In the past, American bishops had been exceedingly tender with the Curia, even subservient, much to the distress of the hard-pressed French and Germans. The Curia, civil service of the Church and executive arm of the Pope, quickly learned to respect the Council. It had taken charge of the preparations and confidently set its own stamp on them.