Manuale Curiae Romano-Ruthenicae

Of Rank and Obedience

Each shall know the limits of his office, the authority of his immediate superior, and the matters committed to his competence.

Inferiors shall obey lawful commands promptly and respectfully. Superiors shall govern with firmness, justice, and Christian charity, avoiding both undue familiarity and unnecessary harshness.

No one shall presume upon personal acquaintance with the Supreme Pontiff, a cardinal, prelate, or other member of the Apostolic Household, Court, or Curia in order to evade the ordinary course of administration.

Access does not confer authority, nor private favor jurisdiction.

Where doubt arises concerning competence, precedence, ceremonial, or procedure, the matter shall be referred to the proper superior rather than decided by private assumption.

An inferior shall not burden a superior with decisions which properly belong to his own office merely in order to avoid responsibility. He shall examine the matter entrusted to him, form the judgment proper to his competence, and present to his superior only those questions which require superior authority, together with the facts and, where appropriate, his considered recommendation.

In making representations to a superior, he shall speak with due reverence and modesty. He may state a difficulty, identify a danger, cite law or precedent, and offer counsel when his office requires it; but he shall not admonish, lecture, rebuke, or address a superior in the manner of one claiming authority over him.

This rule applies with greater force in matters concerning the Sovereign Pontiff. No official shall presume to school the Holy Father in his duties, to speak to him with contentious familiarity, or to convert the liberty of respectful counsel into insubordination.

Once a lawful decision has been given by competent authority, the inferior shall execute it faithfully and shall not continue argument merely because his own advice was not followed.

Of Fidelity and Secrecy

Those serving the Holy Apostolic See shall preserve inviolable secrecy concerning all matters which by their nature, by law, or by command are reserved.

No official shall disclose the substance of private audiences and correspondence, deliberations of congregations, diplomatic correspondence, proposed appointments, judicial proceedings, petitions, disciplinary matters, or other confidential business entrusted to him.

What is learned in office is not to become conversation at table, in salons, in noble houses, among journalists, or within private correspondence.

No one shall make use of reserved knowledge for the advancement of relatives, friends, patrons, clients, or political interests.

Documents, copies, drafts, registers, seals, and memoranda belonging to an office remain the property of that office and therefore of the Holy Apostolic See; and they shall neither be removed nor retained for private purposes.

Officials shall safeguard passwords, electronic records, official accounts, and devices entrusted to them. Reserved information shall be transmitted only by appropriately secure means, and any loss, unauthorized access, or suspected compromise shall be reported promptly to competent authority.

The obligations of secrecy, custody of records, and protection of confidential information contained herein remain binding after the term of service.

Of Conduct and Reputation

All officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner worthy of the Holy Apostolic See.

Clerics shall preserve the gravity proper to their state, observing ecclesiastical discipline, seeking to avoid scandal, and fulfilling faithfully their canonical obligations.

Lay officials shall maintain the good name, moral conduct, and religious observance expected of Christians of the Apostolic Faith entrusted with service near the person and government of the Roman-Ruthenian Pope.

All are to avoid notorious debts, drunkenness, immoderate gambling, scandalous company, public quarrels, secret societies, revolutionary associations, and all conduct by which the honor of the Holy Apostolic See might be diminished.

The higher the dignity, the greater the obligation of example.

Of Social Life

Those serving in the Curia, Court, and Household participate in a social environment of an inherently Roman-Ruthenian culture and may properly take part, according to rank and circumstance, in ecclesiastical receptions, diplomatic functions, respectable dinners, social balls of standing, noble households, learned societies, the high arts, and other honorable gatherings.

No official shall make confidential knowledge the price of social favor. None shall boast of private conversations with the Holy Father, cardinals, ministers, or prelates, nor seek importance by implying possession of secrets. Examples of this include but are not limited to words such as “His Eminence told me” or “The Holy Father privately thinks;” and these are to be avoided except where duty to the Church lawfully requires their repetition.

A prudent member of the curia, household, or court is known less by what he reveals than by what he is able to keep.

Of Dress and External Dignity

Each shall appear according to his rank, office, and state.

Clerics shall wear the ecclesiastical dress proper to them as defined in canon law and relevant pontifical directives. Prelates especially shall use only those colors, insignia, choir and house garments, civic dress, ornaments, and distinctions to which they are lawfully entitled.

Lay officials shall be soberly and properly dressed, and shall use only the court dress, decorations, uniforms, or insignia authorized to them.

No one shall assume a title, habit, decoration, color, or privilege not belonging to him.

Dress is to manifest order, not vanity. Clerics remain at all times bound by the discipline and standards of dress proper to their sacred state. Where canon law permits civilian or casual attire, such dress shall nevertheless be modest, neat, and dignified.

Lay officials likewise shall maintain in public and social life standards of dress consistent with Christian conduct and the dignity of their service.

Proper standards of appearance apply even when a member of the Curia, Court, or Household is not formally exercising his office or attending an ecclesiastical function. No one may excuse slovenly, immodest, or scandalous appearance merely because he is not then engaged in official duty.

Of Titles and Precedence

Titles of dignity shall be used exactly and without affectation beyond the forms specified in protocol instructions of the Church.

The prescribed forms of address for the Sovereign Pontiff, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, prelates, diplomats, and officers of the Apostolic Household, the Pontifical Court, and the Roman-Ruthenian Curia shall be observed both in speech and in writing.

Precedence follows dignity, office, seniority, and pontifical privilege according to the established law and ceremonial custom as specified within the Roman-Ruthenian Church and State.

No one shall contest precedence publicly or disturb a ceremony in defense of personal rank. Any doubt shall be submitted beforehand to those charged with ceremonial order.

Of Service Before the Sovereign Pontiff

No one possesses a right of casual access to the Pope of Rome-Ruthenia merely by reason of curial employment.

Requests for audience shall proceed through the appointed channels.

Those admitted to audience shall enter suitably dressed, observe the proper reverences, speak with brevity and clarity, answer directly, and withdraw without unnecessary delay.

No one shall introduce unrelated petitions or private favors without permission.

Private remarks of the Holy Father shall not be represented as decrees, commands, rescripts, or settled policy unless duly communicated through the competent authority. The familiar word of the Pope is not to be transformed by ambition of others into law.

Of Office Work

Officials shall attend punctually at the appointed hours and shall perform their duties diligently. This shall apply whether a function or duty is in-person or to be carried out remotely.

Business shall not be delayed through indolence, vanity, rivalry, or dislike of the petitioner.

Letters, decrees, memoranda, reports, accounts, and petitions, whether on paper or electronic, shall be prepared clearly, concisely, and in the proper form.

Official writing shall avoid needless ornament, private passion, satire, and polemic.

A good curial memorandum shall state the question, establish the facts, identify the applicable law or precedent, distinguish what is certain from what is doubtful, and indicate what decision is required.

No subordinate shall alter the substance of a superior's decision under pretext of improving its expression.

Of Languages and Documents

The principal languages of the Roman-Ruthenian Church and State are Slavonic, Russian, Latin, and Italian, together with English as its international working language.

Those employed in functions requiring a particular language shall possess sufficient command of the language in necessary ecclesiastical, juridical, or other forms to understand and prepare official acts and communications accurately.

Use of any language shall be with correctness and dignity in administration and correspondence.

Those assigned to diplomatic or international service should possess such additional languages as their office demands.

Errors in formula, title, date, citation, seal, or legal expression are not small matters when committed in documents issued in the name of the Holy Apostolic See.

Of Money, Gifts, and Patronage

No official shall receive money, valuable gifts, commissions, or other benefits in exchange for influence, access, recommendation, judgment, appointment, contract, dispensation, or favor.

Ordinary marks of courtesy may be accepted only when modest and when they cannot reasonably be understood as payment for official action.

Friendship may commend a person to consideration; it may not excuse him from fitness. Patronage may introduce; it may not purchase.

An official shall disclose any personal, familial, professional, or financial interest which may affect, or reasonably appear to affect, his impartial judgment in a matter entrusted to him. Where such an interest exists, he shall withdraw from the matter or proceed only according to the direction of competent authority.

Those charged with funds of the Church shall maintain exact accounts, preserve receipts and inventories, distinguish public money from private property, and submit their administration to lawful inspection.

Of Politics and Public Speech

Those serving the Holy Apostolic See owe fidelity to the Sovereign Pontiff in both his spiritual authority and his lawful temporal sovereignty. They shall not associate themselves with revolutionary movements, secret political societies, inappropriate lodges or organizations, or organizations hostile to the rights of the Roman-Ruthenian Church and State.

They shall not use their offices to form factions within the Curia, Household, or Court.

No official shall speak to journalists concerning reserved affairs, explain pontifical policy on his own authority, publish confidential correspondence, or issue anonymous attacks upon superiors or colleagues.

No official shall represent to others, whether in the Curia, Household, or Court, or elsewhere in the Church, or outside the Church that something is official doctrine, dogma, or policy when it is not. Officials are responsible for knowing said doctrine, dogma, and policy; and ignorance is not an excuse for false statement.

Of Clerics in Curial Service

A cleric assigned to administration remains first a cleric, and he retains all the duties proper to his sacred state and specific order. Administrative ability without clerical discipline is insufficient for ecclesiastical service.

The Curia requires clerics who administer, not men of administration who merely happen to be clerics.

Of Ceremonies

Those taking part in pontifical or curial ceremonies shall observe exactly the directions of the competent masters of ceremonies.

No one shall introduce private inventions, abbreviations, gestures, vesture, or usages into public ceremonial.

Each shall know when he is to stand, kneel, uncover, bow or genuflect, precede, follow, present, receive, or withdraw.

Ceremonial order is not empty display. It gives visible expression to ecclesiastical and civil order and must therefore be preserved with precision.

Of Cardinals, Major Prelates, and High Lay Officials

Cardinals, prelates, and high lay officials shall remember that dignity increases responsibility.

They shall maintain households suitable to their rank, but avoid waste, disorder, scandal, and intrigue.

Their secretaries, chamberlains, servants, and dependents are not to use proximity to them as a means of trafficking in favors.

A cardinal, prelate, or high lay official shall not promise offices beyond his competence, cultivate newspapers for personal advantage, form private political factions, or allow his house to become a marketplace for appointments.

He shall speak of other cardinals, prelates, and high lay officials with the restraint demanded by the dignity of the Sacred College and the Holy Apostolic See.

Of Secretaries and Confidential Assistants

A secretary possesses access, not authority.

He may arrange interviews, prepare papers, transmit instructions, and safeguard correspondence. He may not substitute his judgment for that of his superior, conceal petitions from personal dislike, create obstacles for private advantage, or give his own views the appearance of official policy.

The more closely a man approaches a superior in daily service, the more carefully he must avoid the temptation to borrow that superior's authority.

Of Promotion and Favor

Advancement shall follow fitness, fidelity, learning, experience, sound judgment, good reputation, and proven discretion.

Length of service deserves consideration but does not excuse incapacity.

A man known for gossip, intrigue, financial irregularity, habitual neglect, political faction, or moral scandal shall not be thought suitable for higher office merely because he has remained long in a lower one.

No one shall solicit promotion in a manner unbecoming his state.

Of Discipline

Minor faults shall be corrected first by admonition where this suffices.

Repeated negligence, insubordination, habitual indiscretion, improper absence, or disorderly conduct may be punished by written censure, loss of privilege, suspension, or removal.

Theft, simony, falsification of documents, grave breach of secrecy, corruption, espionage, malicious obstruction of pontifical commands, and other grave offenses shall be punished according to their nature and, where required, referred to the competent ecclesiastical tribunal.

High rank shall not excuse a grave offense, for it may render the scandal greater.

Disciplinary action shall proceed according to competent authority, applicable canon law, and the right of defense.

Of Departure from Office

Those leaving office through transfer, retirement, dismissal, or other cause shall return all keys, seals, files, registers, official correspondence, books, funds, and other property entrusted to them.

The obligation of secrecy continues after departure whenever the nature of the matter requires it.

No former official shall trade upon confidential knowledge, sell access to former colleagues, or make private commerce of information obtained in service.

Of the Vacancy of the Holy Apostolic See

When the Holy Apostolic See is vacant, all shall observe exactly the law governing the vacancy of the Holy Apostolic See.

No one shall assume powers which cease with the Pope, nor interfere with those entrusted by law to the Sacred College or other competent authorities.

Documents, seals, archives, and official communications shall be secured according to established usage.

During the vacancy especially, silence, discipline, and freedom from faction are required.

General Maxims

Let all who serve the Roman-Ruthenian Curia observe these principles:

• Never outrank one's office.
• Never speak for the Roman-Ruthenian Pope without authority.
• Never confuse access with jurisdiction.
• Never use ecclesiastical dignity for private commerce.
• Never repeat what was entrusted in confidence.
• Never evade the competent office merely because one possesses a powerful acquaintance.
• Never assume an insignia, title, privilege, or precedence not lawfully one's own.
• Never allow friendship to destroy procedure.
• Never allow procedure to become an excuse for indolence.
• Never embarrass the Holy Apostolic See through vanity, faction, gossip, or ostentation.

And let all remember that service near the Sovereign Pontiff makes fidelity more necessary and scandal more grave.