Over the weekend, the Vatican surprisingly published a new constitution that had been awaited for years, with which Pope Francis wants to reform the administrative apparatus of the Holy See.

The announcement from the press room reached the public around Saturday noon.

The Vatican initially did not want to comment further, referring to a press conference this Monday.

The new Apostolic Constitution, with the Latin title "Praedicate Gospel" (Preach the Gospel), will come into force on June 5 of this year, it said.

On this day the reform process of the Roman Curia will be completed.

Francis is thus repealing the old constitution "Pastor Bonus" (The Good Shepherd), which Pope John Paul II issued in 1988 and which Pope Benedict XVI, who is Emeritus today,

later changed in 2011.

Since 2013, a panel of several cardinals has been working on the reorganization of the curia.

The reform-minded Francis, who celebrated the ninth anniversary of his inauguration on Saturday, used the advisory board after his appointment.

Women will be allowed to run institutions in the future

The new constitution contains 250 paragraphs on more than 50 pages, which concern the dicasteries – something like the ministries of the Holy See – and other administrative parts.

Francis thus shows which topics he wants to focus on in the Catholic Church and upgrades some areas of church administration.

First, he stipulated that all institutions of the Curia - except the Secretariat of State - were now dicasteries.

He thus ensured a standardization in the Vatican confusion of designations.

Simply put, the Curia should place itself more at the service of the local Churches and focus more on mission.

The reform should promote a more effective spread of the faith and stimulate a more constructive dialogue, Francis wrote in the foreword.

He underlined this goal by merging several authorities into the new Dicastery for Evangelization.

It will be presided over by the Pope himself, showing how important this issue is to Francis.

It is also stipulated that women will be able to manage institutions in the future.

Francis has been promoting women to higher positions within the Curia in recent months.

The papal charitable service (alms office) is also upgraded to the so-called dicastery for the service of charity.

The authority takes care of the needy and thus receives a more important position.

The constitution also addresses the issue of sexual abuse in a paragraph.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors should support bishops and bishops' conferences in developing strategies to protect minors from sexual abuse, according to the section on the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).

Cases of abuse in the Church must be reported to the Dicastery.

In addition, the Commission should find appropriate answers in the case of abuse, for example by clerics, in accordance with canon and civil law.