Vatican Laws: the legacy of Pope Francis’s constitutional reforms

The Buenos Aires-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Argentinian Pope when he adopted the role and moniker of Pope Francis in 2013. He adopted the name of St. Francis of Assisi, a 12th century saint who rejected family wealth and instead, took on a monastic life of service to the poor and the environment.

Pope Francis was the instigator of many “firsts”, including his openness with the press and his readiness to host, and engage with, political leaders and religious leaders of all denominations. Following his death in April, LSJ reflects on the legacy of the former Pope, especially focusing upon his legislative reforms locally and globally, affecting approximately 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.

The law of Vatican City State is one of interweaving bodies of law. The basis of Vatican law is canon law, supplemented by the Italian penal code of 1889. The organs of state are governed by the Fundamental Law, and the Code of Penal Procedure governs tribunals and the Lateran Treaty governs relations with the Italian Republic.

Current Fundamental Law represents a more liberally-minded Pope

In November 2000, Pope John Paul II proposed 20 articles of the Fundamental Law of Vatican City State that would replace the 1929 laws. The new constitutional laws formally came into law in February 2001 and governed the civil government of the Vatican City State. In April 2023, Pope Francis introduced the current Fundamental Law, which were broadly considered liberal in nature and aligned with Francis’s dedication to international social justice.

Pope Francis had already cemented his legacy as a historically transparent and compassionate leader, having updated archaic laws designed to silence victims of abuse, alienate women and LGBTQI members of faith, and to isolate powers to a small group of men within the Vatican. In 2019, Francis convened the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church. The requirement for Vatican City officials to report sexual abuse was later enshrined in Vatican City law. More significant than the fine (thousands of dollars) for failing to report was the substantial lifting of the statute of limitations from four to 20 years. By May 2019, another law had been introduced via Francis’s “motu proprio” (papal order), requiring Catholic church workers, including priests and nuns, throughout the world to report sex abuse, grooming, the making and dissemination of child pornography, and any “abuse of power” by clergy members. He openly labelled the rampant sexual abuse within the church, and the silencing of victims, “our shame”.

Changes that challenge traditionalists but for some, don’t go far enough

In December 2023, Francis overhauled Vatican policy further, formally allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. While traditionalists bristled at this, liberally-minded Catholics bemoaned that Francis had not gone further, and he remained opposed to gay marriage and also to ordaining women. He also remained opposed to abortion and in favour of clergy celibacy.

“If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?” he told reporters in 2013. Nearly a decade later, Francis changed church canon law in January 2021 to formally permit women to serve as readers at liturgies and as altar servers, in recognition of the many churches that had already informally introduced these measures.

He launched an initiative to make Catholic institutions environmentally sustainable by 2028, decrying the “predatory attitude” towards the planet.

Financial crime forces Vatican law to address London fraud case

In 2022, the Vatican faced criticism over its use of rescripts (a form of decree dating back to a penal code devised in the 1800s) that provide near-complete power to the Pope. Ten lay and religious individuals were on trial, including a cardinal of the church, accused of abuse of power, embezzlement and money laundering in a financial fiasco that resulted from the purchase of a luxury property at 60 Sloane Avenue in London. The Vatican’s investment resulted in a loss of nearly 140 million euros ($AU248 million). In February 2025, the High Court of England and Wales confirmed that the Vatican Secretariat of State was deceived by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione in the irregular purchase of a London building, and Cardinal Becciu was convicted on charges of embezzlement and fraud.

Having been convicted by a Vatican criminal tribunal in 2024, Mincione had brought a civil case in Britain to ostensibly clear his name and declare he acted “in good faith”.

The case forced swift reforms to the Vatican legal system to allow for modern financial crimes like offshore accounts, embezzlement, and international real estate operations. Francis pressed for enhanced regulation, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, a canon law expert, told Vatican journalists that “they were made very quickly, sometimes cut and pasted and inserted, but the laws exist.”

The case exposed the complexities and secretive nature of the Holy See, with several of the senior cardinals involved in the property purchase escaping conviction and – for some – being promoted to senior prosecutorial positions. Pope Francis’s chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, testified on behalf of the Vatican in the British case. His deputy, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca headed the administrative office that suggested, then approved, the London investment with Mincione in 2013. Perlasca was never prosecuted for his role in the deal, and while his colleagues faced trial, he resumed working as prosecutor in the Holy See’s highest ecclesial court, the Apostolic Signatura.

Beyond legislative measures, Francis represented attitudinal reform

Francis’s reforms were solid proof of his mandate to align the Catholic church towards a more progressive, modern existence. Beyond his issuing of new laws, however, were his outspoken concerns about climate change, the alienation and demonisation of refugees, migrants, and those in poverty. In a May 2024 interview with US-based “60 Minutes”, he said: “We cannot remain indifferent in the face of such human dramas… the globalisation of indifference is a very ugly disease. Very ugly.”

He had previously travelled to refugee camps in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In recent years, Francis met three times with President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and he publicly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “negation of God’s dream.”

He also said, “Have respect for human life and stop the macabre destruction of cities and villages in the east of Ukraine.”

The recently signed agreement between the Trump administration and Zelenskyy regarding Ukraine’s energy and rare minerals is considered by some to be a consequence of Trump and Zelenskyy meeting at the funeral of Pope Francis in late April.

After the conclave, what next?

While there are conflicting opinions on the legacy of Pope Francis and whether he fulfilled the full extent of reforms that were possible, there is much greater attention now on who will succeed Francis. Will the next Pope carry on the mantle, taking a progressive approach to opening the Catholic church and official roles to women, LGBTQI individuals, altering the formal stance on reproductive rights, and engaging with domestic and local politics?

The signs point towards the affirmative, in light of Francis’s appointment of 21 new cardinals in December 2024. All but one of these new cardinals were under the age of 80, making them eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.

They included the now 45-year-old head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, Mykola Bychok. Bychok is the youngest member of the College of Cardinals and the youngest elector in the 2025 papal conclave. A story on ABC Australia online said his appointment was seen as “an attempt to break from the past … (and) to create distance between Australia and Cardinal George Pell, who was acquitted of child sexual abuse charges, but left a deeply conflicted legacy”.

Father Federico Lombardi wrote a reflection on Francis’s legacy for an Italian media outlet in April. His opinion was “that a truly great contribution of Francis’ pontificate was his commitment to the ‘synodality’ of the Church. Although he was the first recent pope not to have directly experienced the Council, he clearly assimilated its spirit and committed himself in every way, from the very beginning, to making us all feel that we are a Church on a journey, called to participate in the mission…”

He concluded, “Pope Francis’ style was very personal, that is, very free from previous customs or habits, both in his way of communicating and in his way of governing. After all, the task of “reform” had been explicitly entrusted to him by the cardinals who elected him pope. Francis was a courageous pope, who did not stop for fear of making mistakes. As he has said many times, he set many ‘processes’ in motion without knowing precisely what the outcome would be, but he did know the direction, trusting in the guidance of the Spirit. This obviously caused quite a few problems for several of his collaborators and was not always appreciated by everyone. However, on balance, he certainly had many positive aspects, especially in presenting a new face of the Church and the papacy, free from the burdens of constraints and traditions that needed to be overcome.”