The Supreme Pontiff gave his Christmas speech to the Curia in a tense atmosphere at the Vatican and in the universal Church: divisions around the Synod, the verdict of the “trial of the century,” a revolt brewing after the publication of Fiducia supplicans... Although Francis did not allude to this burning news, there was no lack of reproaches, both scathing and subdued.
Resigned or with an absent look, the high prelates of the Curia prepare to listen to the Christmas speech that the Roman Pontiff will address to them in a few minutes, on December 21, 2023, from the platform which supports a throne covered in crimson red velvet.
Since 2013, through his end-of-year talks, Francis has developed the habit of addressing a multitude of reproaches to his colleagues. And the 2023 version should not vary much from previous years: considering this, the current Successor of Peter respects traditions—or at least those he himself established.
The Pope’s admonishments included “overcoming the temptation to stand still and never leave the ‘labyrinth’ of our fears,” to “remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions,” “not thinking, in our pride, that we already know or have understood what others are about to tell us,” not to be “like ravenous wolves,” and “to choose procedures and make decisions based not on worldly criteria, or simply by applying rules, but it accordance with the Gospel.” It was a litany of reproaches that the Argentinian Pope delivered to the cardinals and the principal employees of the Vatican.
The End of a Pontificate with an Increasingly Heavy Atmosphere
The religious news which marked the year 2023 has a heavy atmosphere: the shock wave caused by the five-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed on Cardinal Angelo Maria Becciu—former substitute for the Secretariat of State and former prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints—in an embezzlement case, still shakes the Roman Curia.
There are whispers in the corridors of the apostolic palace that the conclusion of the “trial of the century” constitutes further proof of the authoritarianism of the current papacy: according to Luis Badilla, former journalist for Radio Vaticana, the recent verdict illustrates the “question of excesses and arbitrariness, which have reached the limits of tolerability because they ruin the credibility and authority of the Holy See.”
This is an opinion shared (or almost shared) by Jean-Marie Guénois, religious columnist at Le Figaro, who in his book, Pope Francis: The Revolution (published in French by Gallimard in 2023 as Pape Francois: La Révolution), believes that “Francis worked toward limiting his own power” but that he “paradoxically led the Vatican into autocracy, according to many high-level and consistent testimonies, which was not necessarily perceived from the outside.”
Earlier, in the fall, the Synod on Synodality which took place in Rome was not convincing either: it often tried to circumvent morality in favor of a pastoral approach which does more than perplex. This is especially the case if we recall that we have rarely seen a Pope as moralizing as Francis: you only need to read his annual speeches to the Roman Curia to be convinced of this.
This is a bracketing of Christian morality which further manifested itself in the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on the possibility of the “non-ritualized blessing” of same-sex couples, sowing consternation throughout one part of the world episcopate and the Catholic population: Le Figaro even ran the headline “Revolt brews against Pope Francis’ Decision to Bless Same-Sex Couples” on Christmas Eve.
“60 years after the [Second Vatican] Council,” added the Pope on December 21, “we are still debating the division between ‘progressives’ and ‘conservatives,’ but that is not the difference: the real, central difference is between lovers and those who have lost that initial passion. That is the difference. Only those who love can fare forward.” But can we “love in truth” by circumventing it?
“Please, I encourage you, let us never lose our sense of humour, which is healthy!” the Supreme Pontiff concluded his speech, before offering the cardinals present the book of his Christmas homilies and a copy of his book titled Santi, non mondani: La grazia di Dio ci salva dalla corruzione interiore (Saints, but not worldly: God’s grace saves us from internal corruption).