Pope Francis said warned
the Roman Curia against the dangers of conspiracy mindsets and
cliques in his Christmas meeting with the clergy working for
administrative apparatus of the Holy See Thursday.
He said it was necessary to rise above "that unbalanced and
debased mindset of plots and small cliques that in fact
represent - for all their self-justification and good intentions
- a cancer leading to a self-centredness that also seeps into
ecclesiastical bodies, and in particular those working in them".
Francis also said that people who seek to frustrate reform
efforts should not try to portray themselves as martyrs.
"Let me allude to another danger: those who betray the trust
put in them and profiteer from the Church's motherhood," he
said.
"I am speaking of persons carefully selected to give a
greater vigour to the body and to the reform, but - failing to
understand the lofty nature of their responsibility - let
themselves be corrupted by ambition or vainglory.
"Then, when they are quietly sidelined, they wrongly declare
themselves martyrs of the system, of a "Pope kept in the dark",
of the "old guard"..., rather than reciting a mea culpa.
"Alongside these, there are others who are still working
there, to whom all the time in the world is given to get back on
the right track, in the hope that they find in the Church's
patience an opportunity for conversion and not for personal
advantage".
The Argentine pontiff also stressed, however, that "the vast
majority of faithful persons" were working "with praiseworthy
commitment, fidelity, competence, dedication and great
sanctity".
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