Pope Francis: Vatican officials suffer from 'spiritual Alzheimer's'
In a searing speech to the Vatican bureaucracy on Monday, Pope Francis openly criticized his senior cardinals, bishops, and priests for a wide variety of "ailments," and expressed hope that they will atone for their sins and be cured in 2015.
In the speech, Pope Francis laid out "15 Ailments of the Curia" suffered by the church officials that run the Holy See, including indifference to others, existential schizophrenia, and spiritual Alzheimer's. (Read the full list of ailments at Vatican Insider.) "The Curia is called on to always improve itself and grow in communion, holiness, and knowledge to fulfill its mission," said Pope Francis. "But even it, as any human body, can suffer from ailments, dysfunctions, illnesses."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the extended critique wasn't particularly well-received by its targets. "The cardinals were not amused," reported the Associated Press.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
Pope Leo canonizes first millennial saintSpeed Read Two young Italians, Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, were elevated to sainthood
-
Southern Baptists endorse gay marriage banSpeed Read The largest US Protestant denomination voted to ban same-sex marriage and pornography at their national meeting
-
Prevost elected first US pope, becomes Leo XIVspeed read Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is a Chicago native who spent decades living in Peru
-
Pope Francis dies at 88Speed Read 'How much contempt is stirred up at times toward the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants,' Pope Francis wrote in his final living message
-
Pope returns to Vatican after long hospital staySpeed Read Pope Francis entered the hospital on Feb. 14 and battled double pneumonia
-
Texas megachurch founder charged with sex crimesSpeed Read Robert Morris, former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, is accused of sexually abusing a child
-
Pope Francis suffers setback with respiratory episodesSpeed Read The 88-year-old pope continues to battle pneumonia
-
US Christianity's long decline has halted, Pew findsSpeed Read 62% of Americans call themselves Christian, a population that has been 'relatively stable' for the past five years
