Pope Leo urges joyful, welcoming Church in speech to Vatican cardinals

VATICAN CITY – Pope Leo said on Dec 22 he plans to follow the reform agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis, praising the late pontiff’s attempts to make the global Catholic Church more inclusive in an annual Christmas address to Vatican cardinals.

Pope Leo, the first American pope, told the Church’s most senior officials that Pope Francis,

who died in April

, was a “prophetic voice” who strived to create “a joyful Church, welcoming to all and attentive to the poorest”.

Pope Francis, who led the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church for 12 years, often used his annual Christmas speech with the cardinals to deliver blistering critiques of their work.

In several lengthy speeches over the years, he listed what he called the “illnesses” and “diseases” of the Vatican’s central bureaucracy, known as the Roman Curia.

Pope Leo, who has a more diplomatic style than his Argentine predecessor, spoke for only 15 minutes and offered no such rebukes. But he repeated many themes central to Pope Francis’ papacy.

The Pope warned officials against “falling into rigidity or ideology” in enforcing Church teachings. He also said the Vatican’s complex structure “must not weigh down or slow the progress” of their work.

He lamented that interpersonal conflicts sometimes mar Vatican operations.

“We observe with disappointment that certain dynamics – linked to the exercise of power, the desire to prevail or the pursuit of personal interests – are slow to change,” Pope Leo said. “We then ask ourselves: Is it possible to be friends in the Roman Curia?”

Pope Leo called for “an ever more missionary Roman Curia, in which institutions, offices and tasks are conceived in light of today’s major ecclesial, pastoral and social challenges, and not merely to ensure ordinary administration”. REUTERS