Pope Francis’s Curia attack marks a hardening of his heart against them

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/23/pope-francis-curia-attack-vatican-clerics

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Pope Francis took the occasion of Christmas to mount a really savage attack on the bureaucracy of the Vatican. Characteristically, he did so in a speech to the very people he was criticising.

This isn’t surprising, when you look at his charge sheet. The assembled clerics were accused of “spiritual Alzheimer’s”, “the terrorism of gossip”, lack of self-criticism, supposing themselves indispensable, of forming cliques, fixating on office politics, of “out of jealousy or cunning [finding] joy in seeing another fall, rather than helping him up and encouraging him”, or “theatrical severity and sterile pessimism” and, of course, of “the sickness of deifying leaders”.

Well, there’s one boss the Curia surely won’t be deifying this Christmas. The pope’s speech was received in almost complete silence, according to reports.

The question isn’t whether it was accurate – it corresponds very well to what outsiders say about the Vatican bureaucracy. In fact, it represents a notable hardening of the pope’s heart against them. A year ago, he was saying much nicer things, telling one journalist that it was really true that there were godly people in the Vatican. But he has very carefully arranged his life so that he is far more independent of the Curia than previous popes. He doesn’t live in the papal apartments and he controls his own visitors.

The really interesting question is whether there is any bureaucracy which functions much better than the Curia. Is there any office which doesn’t know “the terrorism of gossip”? Or where leaders aren’t worshipped and underlings ignored? Surely you don’t have to be a celibate priest to take pleasure in the misfortunes of your colleagues, or to have entirely lost contact with the idealism which brought you into the job.

So, as you take a break for Christmas, what would you say to your colleagues if you had the pope’s privilege of telling them exactly what you think?