VATICAN CITY
NPR
KRISHNADEV CALAMUR
Pope Francis has blasted the Vatican’s top bureaucrats at an annual Christmas gathering, accusing the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the Curia of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and careerism.
“Sometimes, [officials of the Curia] feel themselves lords of the manor – superior to everyone and everything,” Francis told the Curia’s assembled members, according to Vatican Radio, which carried a report of the meeting titled “Pope Francis: Christmas greetings to Curia.”
The Curia is dominated by Italians who oversee the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Francis, an Argentine, is the first non-European to hold the papacy in more than a millennium. The former Cardinal had not worked in the Curia before his election, and has made reform of the Vatican a major part of his agenda.
“The Curia needs to change, to improve … a Curia that does not criticize itself, that does not bring itself up to date, that does not try to improve, is a sick body,” he said.
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