At the end of the year, the pope addresses the Vatican Curia. His message to the cardinals, prelates, priests, nuns and laity who work in the various dicasteries, secretariats and other structures in the Holy See and the Vatican City, has on many occasions been strong and blunt, expressing his uneasiness with existing practices in administration and management.

His message is not only relevant to the employees of the Roman Curia, but to everyone working in the Church around the world, and anyone working with the state, private business and non-profit organisations.

Pope Francis’s recurring message is that organisations cannot be heartless and soulless bureaucracies, but dynamic bodies that cannot live without moments of introspection, and that require nourishment and care like all living organisms.

Reflecting on his first-hand experience with the Vatican, in his annual address in 2014 he listed what he called the Curia’s 15 most common diseases. His message was direct and clear, calling out the diseases one after the other: that of thinking we are immortal, immune, or indispensable; excessive busyness without considering the “better part” of spiritual reflection; having a heart of stone with mental and spiritual “petrification”; excessive planning and functionalism; poor coordination with poor communication; the loss of memory, forgetting that we are contributing, like those before us, to the improvement of the organisation; rivalry and vainglory – when the “colour of our clothes and our titles become the primary object of our life”, living a double life; gossiping, grumbling and back-biting; idolising superiors; indifference to others; having a lugubrious face, being glum and dour with others considered to be inferior; hoarding; maintaining closed circles and cliques; and finally, worldly profit – service turned into power and narcissism.

Eight years later, in his latest address to the Curia at the end of December last year, he demanded again that all employees make an examination of conscience to identify what is going wrong and what can be improved in their work “at home”, “within the walls of the institution”.

His main call is for simplicity, taking the example of Christ being born in poverty, and therefore discarding all that is superfluous and a hindrance to being of service to others, and meanwhile getting closer to the Gospels; and seeking the essential in our lives without all the superficiality of excessive wealth and materiality. Pope Francis encourages us to embrace the virtues of gratitude, conversion and peace. The three may sound easy to follow, but they are, in reality, difficult to put into practice.

We may be thinking that all the results of our work are just because we work hard or are being clever, without acknowledging that we can only measure our results in terms of the service we are giving to others, and this is a grace that God grants us each day.

We can only measure our results in terms of the service we are giving to others, and this is a grace that God grants us each day

We may be thinking we do not need any conversion, because we feel superior and self-righteous like the Pharisees, but meanwhile we are not questioning ourselves enough on what can be reinvigorated and given life anew as we face new and more complex social and economic challenges.

If our heart does not seek internal peace, it can easily be tempted by the “elegant demon, who does not make a loud entrance, but comes with flowers in his hands” that alienates us from what is of genuine value, and pulls us down to what is only material and in essence superficial.

 

jfxzahra@surgeadvisory.com