Topic: Credit to the Pope Franciscus

[Jahn]

Dear members of this Forum,
You cannot have missed my negative stand toward the Catholic church, and well, my position hasn't changed, but I see some change coming up when the latest Pope try to define some stagnated energy of the church - as with a new term "'spiritual Alzheimer". Full text in the link at the end of this post.

"Francis invites his collaborators to examine their conscience to confess their 'sins' in today's speech. He mentions vainglory and feeling essential, as well as 'spiritual Alzheimer's' and hoarding money and power. The Pope also speaks of closed circles and worldly profit, as well as the 'tefforism of gossip'"

15 diseases listed and explained, one by one in detail. In his second Christmas speech to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis identifies and explains  15 shades of sin, inviting everyone to ask for God's forgiveness. The same God who 'is born in poverty in a cave in Bethlehem to teach us the power of humility', and was welcomed not by the "chosen" people but by the "poor and simple". Pope Francis asks his collaborators to really examine their conscience in preparation for confession before Christmas.


1. The disease of feeling 'immortal' or 'essential'
'A curia that does not practice self-criticism, does not keep up to date, does not try to better itself, is an infirm Body'.

2. The disease of excessive activity

3. The diseases of mental and spiritual 'petrification'
It is the disease of those who 'lose their internal peace, their vivacity and audacity, to hide under papers and become "procedural machines" instead of men of God', unable to 'weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice!'.

4. The disease of overplanning

5. The disease of bad coordination

6. The disease of spiritual Alzheimer's
That is a 'progressive decline of spiritual faculties' which 'causes severe disadvantages to people', making them live in a 'state of absolute dependence on their, often imagined, views'.

7. The disease of rivalry and vainglory
'When the appearance, the colour of  the vestments and the honours become the first objectives of life... It is the disease that leads us to become false men and women, living a false "mysticism" and false "quietism"'.

8. The disease of existential schizophrenia
It is the disease of those who live 'a double life, a result of the hypocrisy typical of mediocre people and of advancing spiritual emptiness, which degrees or academic titles cannot fill'.

9. The disease of gossip and chatter

10. The disease of deifying the leaders
It is the disease of those who 'court their superiors', becoming victims of 'careerism and opportunism' and 'live their vocation thinking only of what they must gain and not of what they must give'.

11. The disease of indifference to others
'When each one thinks only of themselves and loses the truthfulness and warmth of human relationships. When the more experienced ones do not offer their knowledge to the service of less experienced colleagues. When, because of jealousy or cunning, we rejoice in seeing others fall, rather than lift them up and encourage them'.

12.The disease of the funeral face

13. The disease of hoarding
'When the apostle seeks to fill an existential void in his heart by hoarding material possessions, not because of necessity, but only to feel secure'.

14. The disease of closed circles
When belonging to a clique becomes more important than belonging to the Body and, in some situations, than belonging to Christ himself. Even this disease starts from good intentions, but in time it enslaves all its members becoming "a cancer"'.


15. The disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism
'When the apostle turns his service into power, and his power into a commodity to gain worldly profits, or even more powers. It is the disease of those people who relentlessly seek to increase their powers. To achieve that, they may defame, slander and discredit others, even on newspapers and magazines.

/..../

Francis ended by recalling that he had once read that 'priests are like airplanes, they make the headlines only when they fall, but there are many who fly. Many criticise, and few pray for them'. He said this statement was 'very true, because it highlights the importance and the delicacy of our priestly ministry, and how much a single priest who 'falls' may hurt the whole body of the Church'.





http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/francesco-francisco-francis-38200/

[Michael]

That's a good list!

[erik]

Some sources claim that Pope Francis has said that he has 2-3 years left in this world. He seems to be a man who never quits.