The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope. It coordinates and provides the necessary central organization for the correct functioning of the Church and the achievement of its goals.
"In exercising supreme, full, and immediate power in the universal Church, the Roman pontiff makes use of the departments of the Roman Curia which, therefore, perform their duties in his name and with his authority for the good of the churches and in the service of the sacred pastors"
— Decree concerning the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, Christus Dominus
Curia in medieval and later Latin usage means "court" in the sense of "royal court" rather than "court of law". The Roman Curia, then, sometimes anglicized as the Court of Rome, as in the 1534 Act of Parliament that forbade appeals to it from England, is the Papal Court, and assists the Pope in carrying out his functions. The Roman Curia can be loosely compared to cabinets in governments of countries with a Western form of governance, but only the Second Section of the Secretariat of State, known also as the Section for Relations with States, the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the Congregation for Catholic Education, can be directly compared with specific ministries of a civil government.
Mauro Piacenza JCD (born 15 September 1944) is an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in the Roman Curia since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 7 October 2010. He had previously served as Secretary from 2007 until becoming Prefect.
Piacenza was born in Genoa. After studying at the Major Archiepiscopal Seminary of Genoa, he was ordained to the priesthood by Giuseppe Siri on 21 December 1969. He then completed his studies in Rome, attending the Pontifical Lateran University, where he obtained a doctorate, summa cum laude, in canon law.
After serving as a parochial vicar, he worked as chaplain to the University of Genoa. Piacenza taught canon law at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, and held several other curial posts, serving as the archbishop's press officer. He was the diocesan assistant of the ecclesial Movement of Cultural Commitment. He served as professor of contemporary culture and history of atheism at the Ligurian Higher Institute of Religious Studies as well as professor of dogmatic theology at the Diocesan Institute of Theology for the Lay "Didascaleion". He also taught theology at several state lyceums. He was made a canon of the Genoa Cathedral in 1986. Entering the staff of the Congregation for the Clergy in 1990, he was named its Undersecretary on 11 March 2000.
George Pell AC (born 8 June 1941) is an Australian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001. He previously served as auxiliary bishop (1987–96) and archbishop (1996–2001) of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. He was created a cardinal in 2003.
Pell was born in Ballarat, Victoria, to George Arthur and Margaret Lillian (née Burke) Pell. His father, a non-practising Anglican whose ancestors were from Leicestershire in England, was a heavyweight boxing champion; his mother was a devout Catholic of Irish descent.[page needed] During World War II, his father served in the Australian Defence Force.[page needed] His sister, Margaret, became a violinist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. As a child, he underwent 24 operations to remove an abscess in his throat.[page needed]
Pell received his early education at Loreto Convent and at St. Patrick's College, both in his native Ballarat. One of his classmates at St Patrick's was Paul Bongiorno.[page needed] At St Patrick's, Pell played as a ruckman on the first XVIII from 1956 to 1959. He even signed to play with the Richmond Football Club. However, his ambitions later turned to the priesthood. Speaking of his decision to become a priest, Pell once said, "To put it crudely, I feared and suspected and eventually became convinced that God wanted me to do His work, and I was never able to successfully escape that conviction."[page needed]