Pope Francis Tells Vatican Officials to Be Humble unlike Andrew cuomo, letitia James , Kathy hochul & others
Pontiff looks ahead to a two-year synod involving Catholics around the world
Pope Francis before delivering a Christmas message to Vatican workers on Thursday.
PHOTO: REMO CASILLI/REUTERS
ROME— Pope Francis on Thursday told the heads of the Vatican bureaucracy to embrace humility and listen to Catholic laity through an unprecedented world-wide consultation that will unfold over the next two years.
The pope’s remarks came during his annual Christmas greetings to the leaders of the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administration at the Vatican. The speech is typically an occasion for the pope to review events of the preceding year in the church and give his subordinates a report card on their performance. Last year, he acknowledged the “crises caused by scandals past and present,” following a year of revelations regarding Vatican finances and the mishandling of clerical sex abuse.
This time, Pope Francis took a forward-looking approach focused on the global synod that he inaugurated in October. A series of meetings that will take place at the local, national and continental levels before culminating in an assembly in Rome in October 2023, the synod will potentially touch on all aspects of the church, including its governance and teaching.
Speaking to the assembled Vatican cardinals and bishops in the Hall of Blessings, the pope said the synod would require church leaders to listen humbly to the whole church. He said that would mean overcoming “clericalism,” or excessive deference to the hierarchy, which he said was endemic at the Vatican.
“The clericalism that, as a perverse temptation, daily spreads in our midst, makes us keep thinking of a God who speaks only to some, while the others must only listen and obey,” he said.
Pope Francis has often spoken of “synodality,” or greater participation in decision making by all members of the church, as a key goal of his pontificate. He has also encouraged church leaders to hold meetings with lay Catholics at a national level.
A German synod opened last year in response to the clerical sex-abuse crisis and is expected to conclude in 2023. That series of meetings has raised controversy around the world with proposals to rethink church teaching and practice on a range of issues including sexual morality, priestly celibacy, power sharing between clergy and laity, and the ordination of women.
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In some Christmas speeches, Pope Francis has taken a highly censorious approach, denouncing what he has called spiritual Alzheimer’s and a cancer of plotting and pride in the Vatican.
There was some of that this year, including a warning against “a spiritual worldliness that, unlike all other temptations, is hard to unmask, for it is concealed by everything that usually reassures us: our role, the liturgy, doctrine, religious devotion.” Among the three books the pope gave the officials as Christmas presents was one about gossip, a practice he has frequently denounced.
But the pope also struck a more positive note, encouraging the officials to exemplify the spirit of cooperation that he said would be essential for the synod.
“If the church follows the path of synodality, we must be the first to be converted to a different style of work, of cooperation and communion. All this is possible only by following the path of humility,” the pope said.
THE VATICAN
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President Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, greeted Pope Francis at the Vatican in October. The meeting agenda includes issues such as climate change, ahead of the U.N.’s COP26 summit in Glasgow. Photo: VaticanMedia/Picciarella/Zuma PressTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION
Write to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com
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