This Washington Post Article is very thought provoking. Read it and let me know what you think. Email me at 3cf.mail@gmail.com
The 15 ailments of the Vatican Curia,
according to Pope Francis
On
Monday, Pope Francis addressed the Vatican’s governing leadership — better
known as the Roman Curia — for his yearly Christmas greeting witha very noticeably un-festive tone. In his
remarks, the Pope listed 15 spiritual “ailments” encountered in the Curia, and
urged the bureaucratic leadership to renew its effort to heal itself as
Christmas approaches.
“The Curia is always required
to better itself and to grow in communion, sanctity and wisdom to fully
accomplish its mission,” Pope Francis said. “However, like any body, it is
exposed to sickness, malfunction and infirmity. … I would like to mention some
of these illnesses that we encounter most frequently in our life in the
Curia. They are illnesses and temptations that weaken our service to the
Lord.”
The
somewhat harsh tone of the remarks captured a lot of international attention,
as did some of the Pope’s more memorable names for the Curia diseases he
singles out — including “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and “Funereal Face.” Below is a
condensed version of the Pope’s Monday remarks, containing the 15 ailments he identified.
All English translations are from the Vatican’s news office.
1) “The sickness of considering oneself ‘immortal’,
‘immune’ or ‘indispensable’, neglecting the necessary and
habitual controls. A Curia that is not self-critical, that does not stay up-to-date,
that does not seek to better itself, is an ailing body. … It is the sickness of
the rich fool who thinks he will live for all eternity, and of those who
transform themselves into masters and believe themselves superior to others,
rather than at their service”.
2) “‘Martha-ism’, or excessive industriousness;
the sickness of those who immerse themselves in work, inevitably neglecting
‘the better part’ of sitting at Jesus’ feet. Therefore, Jesus required his
disciples to rest a little, as neglecting the necessary rest leads to stress
and agitation. Rest, once one who has brought his or her mission to a close, is
a necessary duty and must be taken seriously: in spending a little time with
relatives and respecting the holidays as a time for spiritual and physical
replenishment, it is necessary to learn the teaching of Ecclesiastes, that
‘there is a time for everything’.”
3) “The sickness of mental and spiritual hardening: that of those who, along the way, lose
their inner serenity, vivacity and boldness and conceal themselves behind
paper, becoming working machines rather than men of God. … It is dangerous to
lose the human sensibility necessary to be able to weep with those who weep and
to rejoice with those who rejoice! It is the sickness of those who lose those
sentiments that were present in Jesus Christ”.
4) “The ailment of excessive planning and
functionalism: this
is when the apostle plans everything in detail and believes that, by perfect
planning things effectively progress, thus becoming a sort of accountant. … One
falls prey to this sickness because it is easier and more convenient to settle
into static and unchanging positions. Indeed, the Church shows herself to be
faithful to the Holy Spirit to the extent that she does not seek to regulate or
domesticate it. The Spirit is freshness, imagination and innovation”
5) “Sickness of poor coordination develops when the communion between
members is lost, and the body loses its harmonious functionality and its
temperance, becoming an orchestra of cacophony because the members do not
collaborate and do not work with a spirit of communion or as a team.”
6) “Spiritual Alzheimer’s disease,
or rather forgetfulness of the history of Salvation, of the personal history
with the Lord, of the ‘first love’: this is a progressive decline of spiritual
faculties, that over a period of time causes serious handicaps, making one
incapable of carrying out certain activities autonomously, living in a state of
absolute dependence on one’s own often imaginary views. We see this is those
who have lost their recollection of their encounter with the Lord … in those
who build walls around themselves and who increasingly transform into slaves to
the idols they have sculpted with their own hands”.
7) “The ailment of rivalry and vainglory: when appearances, the colour of one’s robes, insignia and
honours become the most important aim in life. … It is the disorder that leads
us to become false men and women, living a false ‘mysticism’ and a false
‘quietism’.”
8) “Existential schizophrenia: the sickness of those who live a
double life, fruit of the hypocrisy typical of the mediocre and the progressive
spiritual emptiness that cannot be filled by degrees or academic honours. This
ailment particularly afflicts those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit
themselves to bureaucratic matters, thus losing contact with reality and with
real people. They create a parallel world of their own, where they set aside
everything they teach with severity to others and live a hidden, often
dissolute life.”
9) “Chatter, grumbling and gossip: this is a serious illness that begins
simply, often just in the form of having a chat, and takes people over, turning
them into sowers of discord, like Satan, and in many cases cold-blooded
murderers of the reputations of their colleagues and brethren. It is the
sickness of the cowardly who, not having the courage to speak directly to the
people involved, instead speak behind their backs”.
10)
“The sickness of
deifying leaders is typical of those who court
their superiors, with the hope of receiving their benevolence. They are victims
of careerism and opportunism, honouring people rather than God. They are people
who experience service thinking only of what they might obtain and not of what
they should give. They are mean, unhappy and inspired only by their fatal
selfishness.”
11)
“The disease of
indifference towards others arises when each person
thinks only of himself, and loses the sincerity and warmth of personal
relationships. When the most expert does not put his knowledge to the service
of less expert colleagues; when out of jealousy … one experiences joy in seeing
another person instead of lifting him up or encouraging him.”
12)
“The illness of
the funereal face: or rather, that of the gruff
and the grim, those who believe that in order to be serious it is necessary to
paint their faces with melancholy and severity, and to treat others –
especially those they consider inferior – with rigidity, hardness and
arrogance. In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often
symptoms of fear and insecurity.”
13) “The disease of accumulation: when the apostle seeks to fill an
existential emptiness of the heart by accumulating material goods, not out of
necessity but simply to feel secure. … Accumulation only burdens and inexorably
slows down our progress.”
14)
“The ailment of
closed circles: when belonging to a group
becomes stronger than belonging to the Body and, in some situations, to Christ
Himself. This sickness too may start from good intentions but, as time passes,
enslaves members and becomes a ‘cancer’ that threatens the harmony of the Body
and causes a great deal of harm – scandals – especially to our littlest
brothers.”
15) The “disease of worldly profit and
exhibitionism: when the apostle transforms his service into power, and his
power into goods to obtain worldly profits or more power. This is the disease
of those who seek insatiably to multiply their power and are therefore capable
of slandering, defaming and discrediting others, even in newspapers and
magazines, naturally in order to brag and to show they are more capable than
others.”
Pope
Francis continued, after listing the ailments, to urge the Curia to use
Christmas time to work on healing the body of the church’s governance:
“We
are therefore required, at this Christmas time and in all the time of our
service and our existence – to live ‘speaking the truth in love, we are to grow
up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole
body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when
each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up
in love’.”
“I
once read that priests are like aeroplanes: they only make the news when they
crash, but there are many that fly. Many criticise them and few pray for
them. It is a very nice phrase, but also very true, as it expresses the
importance and the delicacy of our priestly service, and how much harm just one
priest who falls may cause to the whole body of the Church.”
