Pope Leo XIV has issued two significant reform laws, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, one dealing with the organization of the Rome vicariate and the other streamlining the leadership structure and expanding the oversight powers of the Holy See’s financial oversight body.

The law for the Rome diocese overhauls the governing and administrative structures of the Rome vicariate just three years after Pope Francis issued his own reform of the diocesan governing apparatus.

Leo is the Bishop of Rome, but most of the day-to-day governing decisions – and even major pastoral and other initiatives – are handled by Rome’s cardinal vicar through a large and elaborate administrative staff spread over different offices.

Leo’s reform law, Confirma fratros tuos – “Confirm your brothers” simplifies structures and modifies the distribution of responsibilities throughout the various departments of the vicariate.

It also restores significant powers to the cardinal vicar, while entrusting many coordinating responsibilities to a “moderator” of the curia who is appointed by the pope to a five-year term.

The law also clarifies the roles of the viceregent and the various auxiliary bishops of the diocese, as well as procedures for appointing parish pastors and curates.

The new constitution for the Rome vicariate comes after two other reform initiatives Leo already introduced.

One re-established a special administration for Rome’s historic center in November of last year.

Another in February of this year further revised the territorial boundaries and management structure of the diocesan administrative “sectors” (North, South, East, West, and Historic Center) and established a working group to examine and propose more sweeping changes.

“[A]fter having carefully considered the indications received,” Leo wrote in the preamble to the new Rome diocesan reform law, he said he believes it “appropriate to make some changes” to the Francis-era Apostolic Constitution In Ecclesiarum Communione of 2023.”

The changes are “so that the Vicariate of Rome can respond with ever greater effectiveness to the needs of the evangelizing mission,” Leo wrote, as well as “foster a more intense ecclesial communion and support the pastoral service of the Church in Rome.”

Reform of the Holy See’s financial oversight office

Also on Tuesday, the Vatican published a reform of the Holy See’s financial oversight body, the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, known by its Italian acronym, ASIF.

Created by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 as the Financial Information Authority or AIF, the ASIF has responsibility for financial intelligence, anti-money-laundering and terrorism-finance supervision, as well as for oversight responsibilities for all entities conducting financial activity for the Holy See and the Vatican City State.

The reform law introduced by Leo on June 25 and released Tuesday gives the ASIF exclusive supervisory and regulatory powers for preventing and combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The new law also gives the ASIF, as a member of the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units, exclusive supervisory and regulatory powers over the collection and management of financial intelligence – including the receipt of suspicious activity reports internally or from other international partner organizations – and operational and strategic analysis.

The new law also makes the ASIF solely responsible for releasing – on its own or by request from outside entities – financial information covered under its broad remit.

In terms of the ASIF’s internal organization, one of the most important changes is the elimination of its board and the adoption of a new, streamlined leadership structure

The ASIF will now be headed by a single director appointed by the pope to a five-year term, a deputy, and a group of consultors appointed by the pope upon the director’s recommendation.

Highly technical and articulate, the latest reform of the ASIF is another major step in the Vatican’s nearly two-decade effort to bring its financial system and culture into alignment with 21^st-century international standards and practices.