New lay offices in the administrative management of german dioceses

Comparison of recent diocesan laws on the organisation of the curia with regard to compliance and separation of powers

Abstract

In recent years, some german dioceses have established administrative directors in their diocesan curia in order to relieve the vicars general and to implement compliance standards. This article looks at the laws on the order of five diocesan curia (Eichstätt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Münster). While in the archdiocese of Cologne the approach of separation of powers within the curia is recognisable due to the clear separation of the business areas of vicar general, diocesan economist and administrative director, elsewhere areas of competence overlap and undermine the differentiation between vicar general and economist provided for in the code of canon law. The article is intended as a response to the proposal of Johannes Klösges, who had called for the appointment of lay people to the position of vicar general. It promotes the ideas of the control of powers in the diocesan curia.