Pope Francis offers the Roman Curia a “catalogue of virtues” to progress beyond the scandals

Honesty is the foundation, which means to respect confidentiality and privacy. “What good would it do to open all the Holy Doors” of the world “if the doors of our own heart are closed.” Sobriety is “seeing the world through God’s eyes and from the side of the poor.”

“We are labourers, not master builders.” “We are prophets of a future that does not belong to us.”

“Returning to the essentials”, since “resistance, difficulties and failures on the part of individuals and ministers” are also “lessons” and “opportunities for growth, and never for discouragement.” With this invitation Pope Francis opened his third speech to the Roman Curia, on the occasion of the Christmas greetings. From the Clementine Hall, apologising “for not standing up” owing to a cold, Pope Francis proposed a “catalogue of needed virtues” – “by no means exhaustive” – “for those who serve in the Curia and for all those who would like to make their consecration or service to the Church more fruitful.”

After last year’s “catalogue of curial diseases” – Francis added ad-lib – “today instead I would like to speak about curial antibiotics” since “some of these diseases became evident in the course of the past year, causing no small pain to the entire body and harming many souls, even by scandal.”

During the audience for Vatican employees, held soon after in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope asked forgiveness “for the scandals inside the Vatican”, wishing that “those who have done wrong might repent and find the right path once again.”

Moreover, Francis assured, ” The reform will move forward with determination, clarity and firm resolve, since Ecclesia semper reformanda.” The compass, in this Jubilee year that has just begun, is mercy:

“May mercy guide our steps, inspire our reforms and enlighten our decision. May it be the basis of all our efforts. May it teach us when to move forward and when to step back”, the final prayer.

The evil spirit and the good spirit. “Diseases and even scandals cannot obscure the efficiency of the services rendered to the Pope and to the entire Church by the Roman Curia, with great effort, responsibility, commitment and dedication, and this is a real source of consolation.” From the opening remarks, and several times further on in his speech, even apologising to the audience, the Pope quoted from Saint Ignatius, whose words sound like a clear warning to the members of the Curia:

“It is typical of the evil spirit to instil remorse, sadness and difficulties, and to cause needless worry so as to prevent us from going forward; instead, it is typical of the good spirit to instil courage and energy, consolations and tears, inspirations and serenity, and to lessen and remove every difficulty so as to make us advance on the path of goodness.”

“Those who renounce their humanity renounce everything”. After missionary and pastoral spirit, idoneity – the antidote to ‘recommendations’ and payoffs – and sagacity, the Pope devoted the third combination of “needed virtues” to spirituality and humanity, returning to address a theme that he holds dear: the specificity of Christian humanism.

“Humanity”, explained the Holy Father, “is what makes us different from machines and robots which feel nothing and are never moved.”

“Once we find it hard to weep seriously or to laugh heartily we have begun our decline and the process of turning from ‘humans’ into something else.”

“My vice is neologisms”, Francis added departing from the written text and went on to use the word “innocuousness”, understood as “the ability to bring out the best in ourselves, in others and in all kinds of situations by acting carefully and attentively”, preceded by a quotation from Saint Ignatius, to explain that “every excess is a symptom of some imbalance, be it an excess of reasoning or of delicateness”, the Pope added impromptu referring to the combination of reasonableness and gentleness.

“Charity and truth are two inseparable virtues of the Christian life: to the point where charity without truth becomes a destructive ideology of complaisance and truth without charity becomes ‘myopic’ legalism”, the Pope warned.

“An honest and open person does not act virtuously only when he or she is being watched”. For Francis, honesty “is the foundation on which all other qualities rest” and it is combined with maturity, understood as “the quest to achieve balance and harmony in our physical, mental and spiritual gifts”: a “never-ending” process of development “which has nothing to do with age.” “Respectfulness” implies the respect “for confidentiality” and it is accompanied by humility, “the virtue of the saints and those godly persons who become all the more important as they come to realize that they are nothing.”

“What good would it do to open all the Holy Doors of all the basilicas in the world if the doors of our own heart are closed to love, if our hands are closed to giving, if our homes are closed to hospitality and our churches to welcome and acceptance”.

The reference is not only to the Jubilee that has just begun. The Pope also called attention to what he describes as “diligence”, in the awareness that “the more we give the more we receive.” It must be combined with attentiveness, which is “concern for the little things, for doing our best and never yielding to our vices and failings.”

“As a good soldier”. With a military metaphor Francis described the intrepidness of those who act “with boldness, determination and resolve.” The alertness it is combined with is the ability of not being attached “to fleeting material things”, “being always on the go, and never being burdened by the accumulation of needless things”, or driven by ambition.

Sobriety as a way of life. Combined with accountability, the Pope’s “catalogue” ends with sobriety, “the last virtue on this list, but not because it is least important” is “seeing the world through God’s eyes and from the side of the poor.”

Indeed, “we are labourers, not master builders”: the Pope’s concluding words, taken from a prayer attributed to Blessed Oscar Arnulfo Romero

” We are prophets of a future that does not belong to us”.