Pope Francis deplores Vatican 'ills' in speech to Curia

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

22 December 2014 Last updated at 14:54 GMT

Pope Francis deplores Vatican 'ills' in speech to Curia

Pope Francis has sharply criticised the Vatican bureaucracy in a pre-Christmas address to cardinals, complaining of "spiritual Alzheimer's" and "the terrorism of gossip".

He said the Curia - the administrative pinnacle of the Roman Catholic Church - was suffering from 15 "ailments", which he wanted cured in the New Year.

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He compared the performance of the church's civil servants to that of an orchestra playing out of tune because they fail to collaborate and have no team spirit, the BBC's David Willey reports from Rome.

Before his election in March 2013, the pontiff had never worked in Rome, and he is clearly upset at the internal opposition he has encountered to some of the reforms he wants to carry out, our correspondent adds.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30577368

[cbayer]

1. Spiritual Alzheimer's? That's a good one.

Would have loved to have been there.

[locks]

2. This is the best news for the Catholic church

since Pope John XXIII. If Francis can reform the Vatican power and bureaucracy it will truly be a miracle and he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.