Pope Francis to Vatican officials: Ideology, rigidity prevents church from moving forward

Pope Francis on Dec. 21 cautioned top Vatican officials against becoming rigid and obsessing over ideology, saying that such habits can prevent the Catholic Church from growing. 

"Fear, rigidity and monotony make for an immobility that has the apparent advantage of not creating problems…but lead us to wander aimlessly within our labyrinths, to the detriment of the service we are called to offer the church and the whole world," said the pope. 

Francis offered the warning in his annual pre-Christmas address to the Roman Curia — the Vatican's central bureaucracy — where he warned that rigid ideological positions, even if motivated by good intentions, can "separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward." 

His remarks come just three days after the Vatican's doctrinal office released a landmark document, announcing there had been a "development" in the church's understanding of blessings that now allows Catholic priests to bless couples in same-sex unions, and straight couples who have been divorced and remarried.

The decision has been met with mixed reactions with some church leaders hailing it as progress, while others condemning it as inconsistent with the church's long-standing teaching that marriage is a sacrament celebrated between one man and one woman. 

While the pope did not explicitly reference the Dec. 18 declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis was adamant in his address that it was the duty of church officials to be attentive to the pastoral needs and realities of those whom they are tasked to serve.

"In our service here in the Curia too, it is important to keep faring forward, to keep searching and growing in our understanding of the truth, overcoming the temptation to stand still and never leave the 'labyrinth' of our fears," said the pope. 

Christianity, he continued, "is not meant to confirm our sense of security, to let us settle into comfortable religious certitudes, and to offer us quick answers to life’s complex problems."

"The lives of people and the world around us are, and will always remain, superior to ideas and theories," said Francis. 

The annual pre-Christmas speech is among the pope's most closely watched Vatican addresses that he delivers each year. In past years, he has often used the occasion to chastise church administrators for their perceived shortcomings.

Most famously, in 2014, the pope excoriated the Curia for what he identified as 15 "diseases" that plagued their work. More recently, in 2022, the pope said they should be aware of an "elegant demon" among them that could distract from their service to the church. 

This year, the pope's remarks were predominantly future-minded, telling the heads of Vatican offices that rather than becoming "entangled in the web of bureaucracy," they should always be willing "to look up, to start afresh from God, to be enlightened by his word and to find the courage needed to start anew." 

In assessing how they should prioritize and conduct their respective tasks, the pope said the work of the curia should always be defined by the "art of listening."  

Listening to others, he said, means a willingness to "abandon the patterns and prejudices that at times lead us to pigeonhole those around us." Doing so, he added, would make the church more "sensitive" to how to discern how to better respond to the concrete needs of people, including a willingness to change course.