Pope in blistering critique of Vatican bureaucracy

Pope Francis has issued a blistering critique of the Vatican bureaucracy that serves him, denouncing how some people lust for power at all costs, live hypocritical double lives and suffer from “spiritual Alzheimer’s” that has made them forget they are supposed to be joyful men of God.

Francis’s Christmas greeting to the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the Holy See was no joyful exchange of holiday good wishes. Rather, it was a sobering catalogue of 15 sins of the Curia that Francis said he hoped would be atoned for and cured in the new year.

His criticism included: How the “terrorism of gossip” can “kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood”. How cliques can “enslave their members and become a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body” and eventually kill it by “friendly fire”. How some suffer from a “pathology of power” that makes them seek power at all costs, even if it means defaming or discrediting others publicly.