VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Robert Mickens | Dec. 22, 2014 A Roman Observer
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.)
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.” …
Even though the Jesuit pope did not name names, it’s clear he believes some of these cardinals and bishops are inflicted with the “ailments” he listed — an exaggerated sense of self-importance, lust for power and control, lack of empathy for others, opposition to the movements of the Holy Spirit, careerism, and the “very serious evil” of leading a double life, which he labeled “existential schizophrenia”.
The officials, all wearing black cassocks with their red and violet skullcaps and sashes, sat stony-faced throughout the stinging address, which went on for slightly more than 30 minutes.
Uncharacteristically, the pope hardly looked up from his written text and made only a couple, very minor unscripted remarks. His delivery was slow and deliberate. The prelates politely, but unenthusiastically applauded at the end.
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