Pope Francis attends an audience for the annual exchange of Christmas greetings with members of the Roman Curia in the Vatican on Dec. 23. (Photo: Vatican Media/AFP)
Pope Francis brought together his top Vatican aides for an annual late December appointment that he described as "a way to express [their] fraternity 'out loud' through the exchange of Christmas greetings."
But this year's holiday gathering of mostly bishops and cardinals was actually a chance for the Jesuit pope to once again dole out some good old-fashioned fraternal correction.
In a forcefully delivered address on Dec. 23 that lasted just over 30 minutes, he repeated — though in a slightly more subtle way and often using the first-person plural — warnings that he has issued in previous years against such things as pride, rigidity, factions and clericalism.
"If we had to express the entire meaning of Christmas in a word, it strikes me that humility is the one most useful," Francis told Roman Curia officials.
He lamented that "our times seem to have either forgotten humility or have relegated it to a form of moralism."
