I’m not telling you anything new when I say that one of the most toxic problems facing Catholicism is clericalism. By ‘clericalism’ I mean the tendency to place priests on a pedestal, to accept their pronouncements as gospel, encouraging them to feel, as Pope Francis says, ‘superior to lay people.’ It begins in seminary training Read more
People in the Vatican often use biblical allusions to express their expectations. Such was the case of a top Roman Curia official on March 19, just a few hours after Pope Francis had published his new apostolic constitution to fully reorganize the Church’s central bureaucracy. He was more than willing to give his views on Read more
Pope Francis offered his initial diagnosis of the Roman Curia a long time ago – on December 22, 2014 to be precise – and it was severe. He was still riding the momentum of his recent election to the papacy at the time, and before a gathering of stunned cardinals and top Vatican officials he Read more