Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has been working to reform the Church. 

He recently took a new step with the publication of the new apostolic constitution which profoundly changes the services of the Vatican.

Through the way it is organized and functions, the appointments it makes and the place it recognizes for the laity, the Church always says something about itself and how it understands and intends to carry out its mission. 

So, this text is important.

With this new apostolic constitution, the pope is perpetuating the changes he has been leading for nine years with a view to renewing the style of the Church and energizing its missionary momentum.

If the Church wants to be a servant, it must manifest this through all its components, including at the highest level. The Roman Curia must not be a bureaucracy where people come to make a career; it cannot be an entity from above, cut off from the reality of local community life.

Placed under the responsibility of the Holy Father, it must be at the service of local Churches, to support and accompany them in their evangelizing mission, to collect the best of what each one is doing and to make it known to others with a view to mutual stimulation.

Praedicate Evangelium. The name of the new apostolic constitution "on the curia and its service to the Church and the world" sums up Pope Francis' perspective.

Proclaim the Gospel! It is a roadmap addressed to all those who work in the Curia, as well as to everyone who works in all the various institutions and services of the Church.

The Gospel, nothing but the Gospel.

Dominique Greiner is a senior editor at La Croix, as well as a moral theologian and Assumptionist priest.