Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra called for “healthy decentralization” within the Church as he reflected on synodality and subsidiarity in a lecture to canon lawyers in London. Vatican News reported that Archbishop Peña Parra spoke of a need “to find a balance between two opposing risks: on the one hand, a return to a hierarchical and top-down approach that stifles the role of the faithful; on the other, a chaotic system that threatens the unity and mission of the Church.” As the Sostituto (officially, the Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State), Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra coordinates the internal affairs of the Roman Curia and reports to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State.

Pope Leo XIV penned a brief handwritten letter in English (image) to the world’s bishops to accompany Dilexi Te, his first apostolic exhortation (CWN analysis). “It is with great joy that I write to you, following a practice begun by Pope Francis more than ten years ago, associating the entire Episcopal College at important moments of Papal Magisterium,” Pope Leo wrote. “May ‘Dilexi te’ help the Church to serve the poor and help bring the poor to Christ.”