Pope Francis lashed out at Vatican officials who resist his reform programs on December 21, in his Christmas message to the Roman Curia.
The annual papal address to the Curia, officially listed as an exchange of Christmas greetings, has traditionally been an opportunity for the Pontiff to review the past year’s work and outline top priorities for the future. In 2014, Pope Francis broke from that pattern by delivering a scalding critique of the Roman Curia, listing the “spiritual diseases” that beset the Vatican. Last year, at the same December event, he blasted “malicious” opposition to his plans for reform.
Pope Francis returned to that topic in this year’s address, berating the “traitors” within the Roman Curia and the “unbalanced and debased mindset of plots and small cliques.” He went on to complain that some Vatican officials, “when they are quietly sidelined, wrongly declare themselves martyrs of the system” rather than acknowledging their own failures.
