“The Church is an evangeliser, but she begins by being evangelised herself… She is the People of God immersed in the world, and often tempted by idols.” This exclamation was made by the Blessed Pope Paul VI in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelisation in the Modern World). Pope Francis said this document “to my mind, [is] the greatest pastoral document that has ever been written to this day”.
Pope Benedict XVI felt the need of the Church’s self-evangelisation. Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) exclaimed prayerfully: “How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to Him! How much pride, how much self-complacency!”
Addressing officials of the Roman Curia on December 22, Pope Francis placed his finger on the wounds, thus following St Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage.”
He repeated his call for a radical cultural change in the Vatican and the Roman Curia and, as a consequence, the culture and structures of the diocesan curias around the world.
Pope Francis listed the following temptations and illnesses:
1. “The sickness of feeling oneself ‘immortal… or… indispensable… A curia that does not criticise itself, which does not update itself, which does not seek to improve itself, is a sick body.”
2. The sickness of “Martha-ism immersing oneself in work, neglecting, inevitably, “the better part”.
3. The sickness of ‘petrification referring to those with a heart of stone and a “stiff neck, who [have] lost interior serenity and daring, while hiding themselves under papers becoming ‘practice machines’ rather than ‘men of God’.
4. “The sickness of excessive planning and functionalism Yes to preparation and no to the temptation of wanting to pilot the freedom of the Holy Spirit. This sickness is always easier; it is more comfortable to settle down in one’s own static and unchanging positions.
5. “The sickness of bad coordination communion and harmonious working together is lost, for “an orchestra that produces noise because its members do not collaborate and do not live the spirit of communion and of team”.
How much filth there is in the Church- Pope Benedict XVI
6. “The sickness of spiritual Alzheimer’s forgetting the “history of Salvation”, and one’s personal history with the Lord. These are “those who build walls and habits around themselves, becoming ever more slaves of idols that they have sculpted with their own hands”.
7. “The sickness of rivalry and vainglory.” Appearance substitutes substance. “The colour of garments and signs of honour become the primary objective of life”, and a false ‘mysticism’ and ‘quietism’ substitute prophetic action.
8. “The sickness of existential schizophrenia.” Those who live a hypocritical double life… “A sickness that often strikes those that, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic affairs, thus losing contact with the reality, with concrete persons, thus creating a parallel world for themselves”.
9. “The sickness of gossip, of grumbling and of tittle-tattle… it is a grave sickness.” It begins by just a chat. “It is the sickness of guarded persons who, not having the courage to speak directly, speak behind one’s back.”
10. “The sickness of divinising directors.” These are sycophants who court their superiors, hoping to obtain favours. “They are victims of careerism and of opportunism.” “This sickness can also strike superiors when they court some of their collaborators to obtain their submission, loyalty and psychological dependence, but the final result is a real complicity.”
11. “The sickness of indifference to others.” Thinking only of themselves, they lose the “sincerity and warmth of human relations”.
12. “The sickness of the mournful face: namely of brusque and sullen persons” …often symptoms “of fear and of one’s own insecurity”.
13. “The sickness of accumulating.” Existential void is filled by material goods.
14. ‘The sickness of closed circles.” The group becomes more important than the People of God. This begins with good intentions but it becomes enslavement; it becomes a harmony-threatening “cancer”.
15. “The sickness of worldly profit, of exhibitionism.” Service is transformed into power. Pope Francis says that this includes those who inform the press of (and invent) private and reserved things so as to see their names on the front pages, thus feeling “powerful and fascinating”, while harming others and the Church.
joe.inguanez@gmail.com
Fr Joe Inguanez, a sociologist, is executive director of Discern.