Pope demands humility in new zinger-filled Christmas speech

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

As he has in the past, Francis used his annual Christmas address to take Vatican administrators to task for their perceived moral and personal failings, denouncing in particular those who “rigidly” hide behind Catholic Church traditions rather than seek out the neediest with humility. 

As they have in the past, cardinals and bishops sat stone-faced as they listened to Francis lecture them in the Hall of Blessings, which was otherwise decked out in jolly twinkling Christmas trees and poinsettias. 

“The humble are those who are concerned not simply with the past but also with the future,” Francis told them.