ALJAZEERA: As Pope Francis opened a landmark meeting on reforming the Roman Catholic Church, he lashed out at Vatican pomp and bureaucracy in an interview published Tuesday in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and called for a less hierarchical church.
“The (papal) court is the leprosy of the papacy,” Francis said. “It looks after the interests of the Vatican, which are still, in large part, temporal interests. This Vatican-centric vision neglects the world around it, and I will do everything to change it.”
In an interview containing some of his strongest public language to date, the outspoken pope also said too many of his predecessors in the church’s long history had been “narcissists” who let themselves be flattered by courtiers and aides instead of concentrating on the wider mission of the church… (more)
