Vatican City – Cardinals who do not listen to each other and judge each other “like predatory wolves”, relationships between Curias full of “formalism”, priests ready to condemn others, unable to perceive the complexity of life outside by focusing on the application of the rules restrict rules, “that repeat patterns.” In his end-of-year speech to the Roman Curia exchanging Christmas greetings, Pope Francis takes stock of the situation, a kind of balance sheet of the progress made this year. He immediately places human relationships at the center of his attention. This is probably not a coincidence, since at this historical moment the Church has never been so torn internally due to a series of actions that raised doubts. The most recent of these is the intervention of the Dicastery of Faith on blessings for gay couples, signed by the Argentine Cardinal Manuel Fernandez.
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In the long speech, which he read with a tired voice and heavy breathing, Francis spoke of a “lukewarm and superficial life.” In his opinion, it is “urgent to recover a contemplative spirit that allows us to rediscover every day that we are guardians of a good that humanizes and helps us live a new life.” Brothers and sisters, too in the Curia you have to learn the art of listening. Before our daily duties and our activities, especially before the roles we play, we must rediscover the value of relationships and try to free them from formalisms, to enliven them with an evangelical spirit, especially by listening to one another. With my heart and on my knees. Let us listen to each other more, without prejudice, with openness and sincerity.” And again, in another place: “Even when we communicate with each other, we sometimes risk being like predatory wolves: We immediately try to devour the other person’s words without really listening to them, and we immediately pour our impressions and our judgments on them.”
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Very often, Pope Francis has asked the cardinals, bishops, priests and staff of the Holy See not to be prone to gossip, hasty judgments and “babble.” In the prepared text, the Pope then called for naturalness and simplicity and criticized those who resort to tricks. “Today is the time of make-up, everyone puts on make-up not only for their flight but also for their soul, they show off, even on social media.”
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With Curias, it is advisable to learn to listen. “When we walk the streets of our cities we can hear many voices and noises, but generally we do not listen to them, we do not internalize them and they do not remain within us. It is one thing to simply listen, it is another thing to listen, which also means to welcome.” The Pope shows the way: “Let us free ourselves from the claim to know everything, from the danger of thinking “It is enough to apply the rules, from the temptation to proceed simply by repeating patterns even in the life of the Curia.”, without considering that the mystery of God always surpasses us and that the lives of people and the reality that surrounds us surrounds, is and remains always superior to ideas and theories. Bergoglio gave the cardinals a book called “Saints, Not Secular,” which summarizes all of the pope's interventions against gossip and careerism. This is also an implicit message.
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