Francis asks the cardinals and members of the government of the Catholic Church not to lock themselves in the Vatican walls
As has been customary since he began his pontificate nearly 10 years ago, on this occasion Jorge Mario Bergoglio also took advantage of the speech he dedicated to the members of the Roman Curia on the occasion of the arrival of Christmas to give them a slap on the wrist. In a new attempt to correct the dynamics that he still does not like in the body from which the Catholic Church is governed, the Pope did not hold his tongue in the meeting he held this Thursday in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican with the cardinals and superiors who work in the Holy See, whom he invited not to fall into “spiritual pride” or into the “true heresy” that involves not accepting changes when transmitting the message of Jesus.
He also took the opportunity to show his “great desire for peace”, particularly in “the martyred Ukraine”, and to stress that no war can be declared “holy”. “Our first big problem is trusting too much in ourselves, in our strategies, in our programs”, declared Francisco, for whom it is not enough to “denounce evil”, since a “conversion” is necessary that leads to updating the way of evangelize. “The important thing is to make changes, so that we no longer allow ourselves to be imprisoned by the logic of evil, which is very often mundane.” he insisted he.
The path of internal reflection opened in the Church, which will culminate in the synod on synodality to be held in two sessions (the first in October 2023 and the second in October of the following year), is for Bergoglio a concrete example of this need. to update the transmission of the Christian message.
The devil lurks
Francis alerted the cardinals and members of the government of the Catholic Church of some risks that lie in wait for them, such as trusting too much in their own abilities. The Vatican walls are especially dangerous, because the devil does not give up his wiles, and he does not do so precisely “bringing flowers”. “The greatest attention that we must pay at this moment of our existence is to the fact that formally our current life takes place at home, behind the walls of the institution, at the service of the Holy See, in the heart of the ecclesial body.” In this sense, he said, it is easy to fall into the temptation of believing oneself to be the best. It is a mistake, he said, to rule out that members of the Curia do not need their own conversion.
Sometimes evil disguises itself as anger and unreason, feelings that are fought with kindness and compassion. «There is not only the violence of weapons; there is verbal violence, psychological violence, the violence of the abuse of power, the hidden violence of gossip,” Bergoglio listed.
Francis apologized for the bluntness of his language, which sometimes leads to misunderstandings. «If sometimes I say things that can sound hard and strong, it is not because I do not believe in the value of sweetness and tenderness, but because it is good to reserve caresses for the tired and oppressed, and to find the courage to afflict others. the comforted,” he argued.
The Bishop of Rome demanded that the cardinals be merciful, which means that the other may have their limits. «Even in this case, it is fair to admit that people and institutions, precisely because they are human, are also limited. A pure Church for the pure is only the repetition of the Cathar heresy », he argued.
He urged the audience not to embrace fixed and immovable positions, and warned against the mistake of wanting to “crystallize the message of Jesus in a single, always valid form.”
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