Things the Pope actually does say

Yesterday we highlighted a bunch of nonsense attributed to Pope Francis. As it happens, Francis did have plenty to say on other topics yesterday:

Francis issued a blistering indictment of the Vatican bureaucracy Monday, accusing the cardinals, bishops and priests who serve him of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth, of living "hypocritical" double lives and forgetting that they're supposed to be joyful men of God.

Francis turned the traditional, genteel exchange of Christmas greetings into a public dressing down of the Curia, the central administration of the Holy See which governs the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church. He made clear that his plans for a radical reform of the structures of church power must be accompanied by an even more radical spiritual reform of the men involved.

Two things, before we go any further. The Curia doesn't "serve" the Pope; they are supposed to serve the Church itself. Second, because so many members of the Curia have only served themselves, what Francis plans to do is absolutely necessary.

Francis offered a striking bill of particulars. A few favorites:

6) Having 'spiritual Alzheimer's.' "We see it in the people who have forgotten their encounter with the Lord ... in those who depend completely on their here and now, on their passions, whims and manias, in those who build walls around themselves and become enslaved to the idols that they have built with their own hands."

8) Suffering from 'existential schizophrenia.' "It's the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of hypocrisy that is typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that academic degrees cannot fill. It's a sickness that often affects those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic work, losing contact with reality and concrete people."

10) Glorifying one's bosses. "It's the sickness of those who court their superiors, hoping for their benevolence. They are victims of careerism and opportunism, they honor people who aren't God."

12) Having a 'funereal face.' "In reality, theatrical severity and sterile pessimism are often symptoms of fear and insecurity. The apostle must be polite, serene, enthusiastic and happy and transmit joy wherever he goes."

Francis is identifying issues that happen in all organizations and is calling on the Curia to get back to first principles, principles that largely get ignored the deeper one resides in any bureaucratic structure. The larger question is what he is willing to do to bring about the needed reform. Bureaucracies depend on inertia and delay; since Francis is an old man, a lot of folks in the Curia assume they'll be able to wait him out. The task at hand is to keep the pressure on.

The "funereal face" line is particularly amusing, because it's such a feature of institutionalized Catholicism. The assistant principal at the Catholic high school I attended was a nun that nearly everyone called "Funeral Face." She was severe, officious and if she ever smiled, there were few witnesses. Her primary task seemed to be enforcing the dress code for girls, which required that girls wear a blue blazer while "in transit," meaning between classes. The real purpose was to keep the gals covered up, lest the boys get distracted by their Catholic schoolgirl charms. I can assure you the policy did nothing except irritate the girls -- we were plenty distracted anyway.

We'll come back to this topic.