Sir, – Patsy McGarry's article on the "Pope's broadside" to the powerful Roman curia is very interesting (World News, December 24th).
The content of the broadside has much wider application than just the Roman curia.
It contains phrases such as “the sickness of feeling oneself immortal, immune or in fact indispensable”, “excessive planning and functionalism”, “a progressive decline of the spiritual faculty”, “rivalry and vainglory”, “the sickness of indifference to others”, and finally “the sickness of worldly profit”. All are depressingly applicable to the Celtic Tiger era in this country.
Why did we not have someone like Pope Francis to remind the powerful of that vainglorious period in this country of their faults and failings? – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton, Dublin 13.
A chara, – Reports of what Pope Francis said to the Roman curia on December 22nd seem to gravitate predominantly to the “bad news” – the checklist of 15 “diseases” to which the curia may be subject. Pope Francis put his message in the context of seeing the church as the “mystical body of Christ” – the mission of a Christian community is to make the living presence of Jesus Christ known in our world today. The title of his address is “The Roman Curia and the Body of Christ”. This challenging objective is the reason for his checklist. He expands the image, saying that like any human body, the church and the curia are exposed to disease and malfunction.
Yes, he gives his checklist of 15 ”diseases” to look out for. It is not a tirade or an attack on the curia; it is an examination of conscience. If I examine my conscience using the 10 Commandments as a checklist to focus, I do not (I hope!) expect that I will be in breach of every one of them, but it can help to check. Having listed the 15 “diseases”, he remarks that such diseases and temptations are naturally a danger for every Christian and every curia, community, congregation, parish, and every movement in the church, and they can strike both at an individual and a community level.
The same diseases can affect any human institution or individual. If I recall correctly, the Taoiseach promised that his Government would carry out evaluations of the various departments. Perhaps he would propose an examination of conscience like that proposed by Pope Francis? Perhaps also other Irish institutions, including the media, would consider the same? This is in no sense an attack, but a reality check on whether we are fulfilling our mission, and what the obstacles may be.
And yes, there was humour in his address! Speaking of the disease of the “funereal face”, he referred to a prayer attributed to St Thomas More, which he prays every day. It’s given in the endnotes to the address. The prayer ends like this: “Grant me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing we call ‘me’. Grant me, O Lord, a good sense of humour. Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others.”
As Thomas More wrote to his daughter Meg on the day before his execution, “May we all meet merrily in heaven!” – Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Sandyford, Dublin 16.