Monday, December 22, 2014

"All cruelty springs from weakness"

That's from Seneca. I thought of it when I read that Pope Francis had used an annual pre-Christmas meeting with the cardinals and bishops who run the Vatican bureaucracy to issue what has been called a scathing critique. The assembled churchmen only applauded "tepidly" according to the Associated Press newswire. That would be as opposed to all those people who hoot and holler and stomp their feet when they are attacked.

It's not that the criticism is unwarranted, quite the contrary. The problem is doing it during an annual pre-Christmas address. That is the cheap, snivelling act of a weakling.

The Curia needs to be reformed. So reform it! Decide what needs to be done and then do it. Haranguing people just before Christmas is crass and cruel and, more importantly, ineffective. This is the way a weak man in over his head responds.

Pope Francis needs to man up.

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