VATICAN CITY
Los Angeles Times
Tom Kington
Pope Francis on Monday handed the cardinals and bishops working at the Vatican a 12-point to-do list for Christmas, warning them that nothing would stop his crusade to expunge bad behavior from the Holy See.
For the second year running, Pope Francis used his Christmas speech to Vatican prelates to criticize them for the scandals and corruption — “diseases,” he called them — that have bedeviled the Vatican in recent years.
“Some of these diseases became evident in the course of the past year, causing no small pain to the entire body and harming many souls, even by scandal,” he said.
Two Vatican consultants, an assistant and two authors are currently on trial at the Vatican, accused of leaking sensitive documents about mismanagement and sleaze in the Holy See. The authors’ bestselling books revealed mysterious break-ins at the Vatican and turf battles between bureaucrats.
Over the weekend, the Vatican’s former No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, gave a children’s hospital a donation of 150,000 euros ($164,000) after one of the books claimed hospital funds were used to redecorate his luxury penthouse.
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