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their duties and the practice of varying countries. This well-arranged ordering of the dignities and powers of the priesthood, which goes back in a straight line of mystical heritage to the powers conferred upon the Apostles by the Founder of the Church, was not subsequently altered in any essential respect. It is too closely associated with the heart of the Church to make possible any marked innovations.
Matters are different, however, with die hierarchy based on Church Law. The bureaucracy of the Roman Curia is a carefully organized administrative body to which is entrusted the external progress of the Church in the world. Its tasks are never finished, since it must reckon with the flux and change of men, objectives and circumstances, so like what every other state officialdom must confront. Not so long ago (1908) Pius X remodelled the Curial structure with a firm hand. Benedict XV also made important changes; and still further clarifica- tions of competencies would seem to be necessary. But Rome is never in a hurry. It may be that the Curia of the relatively distant future will differ from that of today in no important respect.
Curia Romana signifies the totality of those officials resident in Rome whom the Pope uses in exercising his spiritual and temporal rights to sovereignty. The term therefore includes positions of purely local significance, such as, for example, the vicariates which the Pope, as Bishop of Rome, must represent, or the papal post-office and police authorities. But in speaking of the Curia as the instrument of Papal world authority one refers only to those offices which affect the govern- ment of the Church as a whole: the College of Cardinals, the Congre- gations, the Papal Tribunals, and the Papal Offices. Members of these may be cardinals, prelates or officials without prelatical rank. The large number of lawyers, procurators, agents and notaries who are admitted as representatives of those who have business to transact, and the numerous lower officials are summarized under the name of the Cttriales. This group is comprised of lower clergy and laymen. The fact that laymen are admitted to subordinate positions is less surpris- ing than is the fact that not even important offices (e. g. the highest rank of the cardinalcy) are reserved exclusively to the priesthood. The simple deaconate would theoretically suffice in many instances. Car- dinals Consalvi and Antonelli are examples. The members of the Curia ate not primarily pastors, as the bishop and his assistants are,
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