The highlight of the year must be Pope Francis’s diagnosis of the problems of the Curia
– especially, possibly, pointing out to it that it has problems.
Anybody who has ever worked in a large institution- especially an old large institution-
must have had a wonderful time pinning his comments to individuals ,
occasions and tendencies they immediately recognised.

Some have wondered if he was being unkind.
Others have wondered why some of his predecessors didn’t exercise
similar managerial input.
Very cynical others may feel this was because this suited them .
The point is that the Pope is the Manager. And he is Managing !
That’s what he’s there for.

The Catholic press is of course in limbo- if you’ll pardon the expression –
at this time , with Christmas Numbers all prepared weeks ago.
But it will, of course- well, it will, won’t it ?
– no, surely it will- give us all the details in the next few weeks.
( And if it doesn’t, why not ? But later, later)
For the benefit if those who couldn’t get all the details from the media
– after all, an associate of the Beatles died on the same day, and was no. 2 on the BBC News-
but we can provide the headings.
The “Washington Post” website provided all of these on Google,
with supporting quotations from the Pope’s actual speech.

(1) “the sickness of considering oneself immortal, immune or indispensable”
(2) “Marthaism or excessive industriousness”
(3) “the sickness of mental and spiritual hardening”
(4)“the ailment of excessive planning and functionalism”
(5 “the sickness of poor coordination”
(6) “Spiritual Alzheimer’s Disease”
(7) “the ailment of rivalry and vainglory”
(8) “existential schizophrenia” (the most brilliant insight of all for Catholics, we think)
(9) “chatter, grumbling and gossip”
(10) “the sickness of deifying leaders”
(11) “the disease of indifference towards others”
(12) “the illness of the funereal face”
(13) “the disease of accumulation”
(14) “the ailment of closed circles”
(15) “the disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism”
This masterly analysis of the mechanics of any neglected and ageing institution
must not be regarded as mere Curia-bashing.
In fact, it ranks with the work of Janis on the psychological mechanism of a group,
recently mentioned here,as a milestone in psychological and managerial nsight.
(With extra insight added into the spiritual dimension which the Curia must acknowledge
it possesses)
Now- if you work in such an institution- don’t mention even to yourself
the names which spring to mind. It is Christmas, after all !

At last- a Pope who realises that we are out here !

That was the highlight.
Now,it is the custom for publications at this time of the year to have a comic or
humorous section.
So, we’ll mention that we had here a Bishop publicly not being very amused by Francis’s
preference for pastors and not princes. No, seriously!
Before far too polite an audience. He did!
It’s an interesting attitude the more you think about it .
Still, that was nearly a year ago, to be fair.

We wish you belated Christmas greetings, having abandoned our last blog
in mid-harangue after Francis’s remarks.
We hope you all received nice Christmas gifts, certainly none better than
the gift we all received in March 2013.