UNITED KINGDOM
The Observer
Observer editorial
On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis, “a pope for the poor”, the first Jesuit elected to the papacy, returned to what has become a recurring theme of his first two years in office – the venality of power and extreme wealth and the lessons wrenched from poverty. The light in the sky at the birth of Christ, he said in his address, was not seen by “the arrogant, the proud, by those who made laws according to their own personal measures”, but by “the unassuming”.
Some of the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the Holy See, whom earlier in the week had been the recipients of the pope’s blistering attack on the 15 ailments that plague the Vatican, must, again, have felt the sting of criticism. On Monday, the 78-year-old had railed against the upper echelons of the church for being infected by careerism, backstabbing and hypocrisy. The pope criticised “the terrorism of gossip” that could “kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood ”. Officials, he said, suffered from “spiritual Alzheimer’s”, they were rivals and boastful, they sought worldly profit and had become hardened to others. His reception was frosty.
Pope Francis, born in Argentina of Italian heritage, is a man engaged with the world. He recently achieved a major coup, brokering the restoration of relations between the US and Cuba. At Davos, he chided the rich for neglecting the “frail, weak and vulnerable”. A neoliberal he isn’t. In Evangelii Gaudiium (The Joy of the Gospel), his first major work after he became pope, the pontiff wrote: “The worship of the ancient golden calf… has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy.”
On the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, 70 miles from the Tunisian coast, he demanded more action to save African refugees drowning in the seas in their quest for a better life. “In this globalised world,” he said, “we have fallen into globalised indifference.” …
The Vatican still has its scandals, most notably the incalculable hurt caused to tens of thousands by helping to cover up decades of child sexual abuse, but Pope Francis appears to be trying to bring transparency and accountability. He speaks on behalf of the poor but how much is he prepared to challenge the power of those, including the church, with an excess of influence and wealth?
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