Gift of Reform

The Times-Tribune
December 25, 2014

http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/gift-of-reform-1.1807776

In addition to the traditional prayers and wishes for peace and goodwill, Pope Francis has presented the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics a distinctly unique Christmas gift — sweeping reforms of Vatican institutions.

Members of the Curia, the powerful cardinals, bishops and priests who run the Vatican bureaucracy, sat before the pope Monday like schoolchildren waiting to see the vice principal.

Pope Francis was unsparing in his assessment of their performance. He accused some of them of using their careers to accumulate power and wealth and, thus, of being hypocritical relative to the church’s fundamental mission — what he called, delightfully, “existential schizophrenia.”

That was just one of the “15 illnesses of the Curia” he defined in a Christmas season address that departed exponentially from its usual collegial tone.

In demanding that the Curia atone, Pope Francis yet again has demonstrated a worldview that separates him from the Curia due to education and experience. He is the first Jesuit pope and the first from “the New World,” Argentina, where his ministry focused primarily on the poor.

It is clearer than ever that the pope intends to radically reform church institutions and that he views the first step as spiritual reform among the people who run those institutions. For Catholics, that should contribute mightily to a Merry Christmas.