Pope Francis attacks 'diseases' of Vatican in Curia address
December 22, 2014 -- Updated 1354 GMT (2154 HKT)
Rock star Pope shakes up the Vatican
In his annual Christmas
address to the Curia at the Vatican Monday, the Pontiff warned that "a
church that doesn't try to improve is like a sick body."
Francis said suggested
that it would be helpful to the Vatican bureaucrats to have a catalog of
their illnesses beginning with "this disease of feeling immortal or
indispensable."
The "pathology of power,"
he said, could lead to people believing "they are superior to others
and not here for the service to others."
Dear brothers let us be aware and guard against the terrorism of gossip.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis
Francis warned against the disease of loss of compassion, which he said afflicted "those who have a heart of stone."
"Those who lose their
inner serenity, their vivacity and audacity, to hide behind their
papers, becoming like procedural machines rather than men of God. This
is dangerous to lose human sensitivity, so necessary in order to cry
with those who cry and enjoy with those who enjoy," the Pope said.
Pope Francis referred to
the diseases of "excessive planning and functionalism" and of "bad
coordination," which he said could occur when members did not
collaborate with each other. There was also the risk of
succumbing to spiritual Alzheimer's disease and "forgetting the story
of salvation," he said, warning that sufferers "lost memory of their
encounter with God."
The Pope described the
diseases of rivalry and vainglory, and rebuked those who try to court
their superiors "inspired by their own egotism."
The disease of gossip, Francis said, he had addressed before -- but insufficiently.
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"This is a serious
disease that begins simply when people chatter, and it takes over the
person, turning the person as a Satan, and in so many cases people are
speaking ill about their own colleagues and brothers and sisters. These
people haven't got the courage to speak directly, and they speak about
others behind their backs," he said. "Dear brothers, let us be aware and
guard against the terrorism of gossip."
Pope Francis also
appeared to speak to the child abuse scandal that has rocked the
Catholic Church, referring to it as the "disease of a closeness."
"This disease also
begins from good intentions, but with the passing of time enslaves its
members, becoming a cancer which threatens the harmony of the body and
causes a lot of evil and scandal, especially towards our small brothers
and sisters," Francis said.
Finally, Francis warned
against the disease of the mundane -- "of the exhibitionism when the
apostle transforms his service in power."
"This is a disease of
people who seek tirelessly to multiply power only aimed at calumny, and
to defame and discredit others," he said.
Pope Francis concluded:
"Dear brothers, such diseases and such temptations are a naturally a
danger for each Christian and for each Curia. For each community, for
any ecclesiastical movement. They can damage both individually and the
community. We have to say that only the Holy Spirit and the soul of
Christ, only he can protect us from the disease.
"We have to cure ourselves of these. Let us try to grow together and close to Christ."
In an interview with
CNN's Christiane Amanpour that aired earlier this month, veteran Vatican
watcher Marco Politi said Pope Francis had been encountering growing
opposition within his own church.
This was mainly due to Francis' efforts at reform since becoming Pope in March 2013, Politi said.
"Within the Church,
there is a tough group of conservative bishops and priests and
cardinals, and also very traditionalist bishops and cardinals who are
practically against the Pope, who are working against the Pope," he
said. "They don't like what he wanted to do with the synod about family,
to give new possibilities to remarried and divorced people to get the
communion, or to have a new look on the homosexual union."
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