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Pope Francis delivers his blessing astatine the extremity of his play wide assemblage successful the Paul VI Hall, astatine the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

ROME – Pope Francis urged Vatican cardinals, bishops and bureaucrats Thursday to clasp humility this Christmas season, saying their pride, self-interest and the “glitter of our armor” was perverting their spiritual lives and corrupting the church’s mission.

As helium has successful the past, Francis utilized his yearly Christmas code to instrumentality Vatican administrators to task for their perceived motivation and idiosyncratic failings, denouncing successful peculiar those who “rigidly” fell down Catholic Church traditions alternatively than question retired the neediest with humility.

As they person successful the past, cardinals and bishops sat stone-faced arsenic they listened to Francis lecture them successful the Hall of Blessings, which was different decked retired successful jolly twinkling Christmas trees and poinsettias.

“The humble are those who are acrophobic not simply with the past but besides with the future, since they cognize however to look ahead, to dispersed their branches, remembering the past with gratitude," Francis told them. “The proud, connected the different hand, simply repeat, turn rigid and enclose themselves successful that repetition, feeling definite astir what they cognize and fearful of thing caller due to the fact that they cannot power it."

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The arrogant who are truthful inward-looking are consumed with their ain interests, the pontiff said.

“As a consequence, they neither larn from their sins nor are they genuinely unfastened to forgiveness. This is simply a tremendous corruption disguised arsenic a good. We request to debar it," helium added.

Since becoming pope successful 2013, Francis has utilized his Christmas code to obstruction against the Curia, arsenic the Holy See's bureaucracy is known, denouncing the “spiritual Alzheimer’s” that immoderate members endure and the absorption helium had encountered to his efforts to betterment and revitalize the instauration and the Catholic Church astatine large.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.