Pope Leo XIV reverses Pope Francis’ decision regarding the organization of the Diocese of Rome

(ZENIT News / Rome, 11.28.2025).- Pope Leo XIV has restored the pastoral central district of the Diocese of Rome, effectively reversing the territorial restructuring introduced just a year earlier by Pope Francis. The decision, issued in the apostolic letter Immota manet and released as a Motu Proprio on 26 November, reassembles the five historical Prefectures into a single Central Sector—an arrangement familiar to generations of Roman clergy and long considered the natural framework for serving the city’s ancient core.

Although the new Pope makes clear that he does not question the motivations behind Francis’ 2024 reform, he places the experience of the recently concluded Jubilee Year at the center of his reasoning. The extraordinary influx of pilgrims and the pastoral demands they generated, he writes, revealed “not only the particular identity but also the internal unity” of the historic center—qualities that had become impossible to ignore. In the face of such evidence, Immota manet concludes that the five Prefectures—numbered I through V—should once again operate together as a single pastoral body, standing alongside the four other sectors that cover Rome’s vast periphery.

The decision marks a quiet but meaningful shift. When Francis issued La vera bellezza in October 2024, he sought to draw the clergy and institutions of the city center into closer solidarity with the outskirts, where most Romans live but where parishes and priests are comparatively few. His reform dissolved the Central Sector and redistributed its territory among outlying districts, hoping to counteract what he saw as a risk: the center becoming a “living museum,” admired by millions but insufficiently integrated into the daily pastoral life of the metropolis.

Yet the reform never sat comfortably with many of the city’s priests, who struggled to implement it in practice. The dense network of churches, monasteries, and ecclesiastical institutions inside the ancient walls—with their rhythms, demands, and unique historical responsibilities—proved difficult to graft onto the structures of the outer sectors. The Jubilee Year, with its intense liturgical and logistical pressures, only sharpened that mismatch.

Leo XIV acknowledges Francis’ intentions without contesting their validity. But he suggests that the Holy Year provided something the earlier reform could not foresee: a lived demonstration of the center’s pastoral coherence. To ignore such evidence, he implies, would risk weakening rather than strengthening the diocesan mission.

The Motu Proprio’s title, Immota manet—“It remains unmoved”—carries its own quiet symbolism. Issued on 11 November 2025 and taking effect immediately upon publication in L’Osservatore Romano, the decree emphasizes stability without nostalgia: a restoring of structure not to undo a predecessor’s vision, but to ensure that the pastoral life of Rome aligns with the city’s enduring realities. The decision also underscores the flexibility inherent in papal governance; a Motu Proprio, issued solely by the Pope’s personal initiative, offers a precise instrument for such adjustments.

For clergy and faithful alike, the restoration means that Rome’s historic heart once again stands as a distinct pastoral region—one that embraces the city’s unparalleled concentration of sacred spaces, welcomes its pilgrims, and carries the weight of centuries of Christian memory. Whether this reconfiguration will prove lasting, immota in the fullest sense, will depend on how the diocese continues to reconcile the spiritual demands of its ancient center with the pastoral needs of its expanding outskirts.

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