MASSACHUSETTS
Daily Hampshire Gazette
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Now that’s what we call harkening to the reason for the season. In the second of his annual Christmas addresses, Pope Francis chastised a Vatican leadership in which he said too many prelates preach a Christ-like selflessness but practice a life of backstabbing, power grabs and political maneuvering.
“Brothers, let’s guard ourselves from the terrorism of gossip,” Francis told cardinals and bishops gathered at the Apostolic Palace, The New York Times reports. “The ailment of close circles enslaves their members and becomes a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body.”
Francis’ call to conscience provides the latest, and most dramatic, evidence that the first Latin American pope plans to devote his time at the Holy See to a gospel of inclusion rather than one that has too often excluded the weak, the scorned, the fallen-from-favor. What better message to deliver at this time of year when many celebrate a holy man who devoted his life to embracing the least among us?
In less than two years at the Holy See, Francis has made his home in humble quarters rather than the luxurious papal residence, reminded the church of its duty to the poor, called for acceptance of gay people and pushed for an end to the Cold War between the United States and Cuba.
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