Francis gives Roman Curia officials coal for Christmas
by Robert Mickens | Dec. 22, 2014
Rome -- It's now all but official. Pope Francis and certain members of the Roman Curia's old guard are openly at battle for the soul and future of the Catholic church. And their clash is over a sense of entitlement and privilege traditionally tied to a clericalist ethos and court mentality that has long held sway at the Vatican.
The Argentine pontiff pretty much confirmed that on Monday in his annual pre-Christmas meeting with the Curia's top officials during which he denounced a long list of bad attitudes and behavior he believes are ailing the church's central offices. (Read Joshua J. McElwee's excellent report on the 15 illnesses that, according to Francis, are threatening the Curia's spiritual and moral health. http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-issues-scathing-critique-vatican-bureaucracy-pre-christmas-meeting)
The 78-year-old pope delivered his screed to the cardinals and bishops -- that's exactly how many people inside and beyond the walls of the Vatican will read it -- just a little more than 24 hours after France's oldest national paper, Le Figaro, published a cover article in its Sunday magazine titled, "The Secret War Inside the Vatican: How Pope Francis is shaking up the Church."
The conservative paper's highly respected Vatican analyst, Jean-Marie Guénois, claimed in the article (that the "climate inside (the Vatican) is not good." He wrote that "fear reigns" among many officials and employees who do not like how the pope is dismantling traditional protocols and who are nervously waiting to see how his eventual structural reforms will affect them. Guénois quoted one of these officials as saying, "His way of governing is disconcerting."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/roman-observer/francis-gives-roman-curia-officials-coal-christmas
beemer27
(457 posts)Those old fogeys need a little shaking up. This Pope is breathing a little life back into being Catholic. I hope that he succeeds.
ColesCountyDem
(6,943 posts)Long overdue and BADLY needed! Thank you, Your Holiness.
meow2u3
(24,745 posts)I wouldn't call his admonition of the Curia's Old Guard a screed, but rather, a correction. The conservatives have gone astray valuing power and privilege over Christlike living.