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POPE FRANCIS HAS urged Vatican cardinals, bishops and bureaucrats to embrace humility this Christmas, 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, since they know how to look ahead, to spread their branches, remembering the past with gratitude,” Francis told them.
“The proud, on the other hand, simply repeat, grow rigid and enclose themselves in that repetition, feeling certain about what they know and fearful of anything new because they cannot control it.”
The proud who are so inward-looking are consumed with their own interests, the pontiff said.
“As a consequence, they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness. This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it,” he added.
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has used his Christmas address to rail against the Curia, as the Holy See’s bureaucracy is known, denouncing the “spiritual Alzheimer’s” that some members suffer and the resistance he had encountered to his efforts to reform and revitalise the institution and the Catholic Church at large.
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There is nothing more demoralizing than being bullied or intimidated in the workplace.
You want to give 100% to the customer/company and enjoy your job.
But it only takes 1 or 2 sad individuals to destroy any good feelings you have.
It saps your self confidence and ability to give the customer the service they deserve.
It isn’t physical intimidation (these bullies are far too scared to do that) .
It’s the whisper campaigns , doing things they know annoys you, they turn other workers against you and basically make life miserable.
Sad little individuals.
I left a job I truly loved 10 years ago and still regret it.
@Justice Mickey: Same thing happened to me.HR didnt want to know.Ended up having to quit.Found out later he had been asked to leave his previous job for the same thing.Nasty piece of work.
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: I’ve see it happen. Nasty pieces of work, like you, I reported it in writing, & faced the bully nose to nose, he backed down and moved on to other softer touches, & like you most of these people, packed up & moved on. The Employer lost some fantastic people, & another loser is the Employer.
Moral in my storey is, stand up to the B’ast4rds, they cant handle it when someone puts it up to them. I know that shouldn’t be the way, but in life you gotta do what you gotta do?
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne:
So sorry to read that Trish and hopefully you are in a better place mentally and physically.
Happy New year to you.
@Dom Layzell:
HR are totally useless and toothless, I confronted the ring leader and went Nose to Nose and he was scared shitless but it reverted back once he had his sleveen devious buddies behind him.
Then he made sure there would never be another opportunity.
Bullies are nothing but sad little cowards whit zero personalities or social skills.
They think that by belittling someone they are seen as “The big man/woman”.
I would hate to be in their shoes and be know as a pure looser and be the laughing stock.
In most cases these people turn into miserable old and unwanted people that will die alone and nobody will care.
@Justice Mickey: you’re wrong – it’s bad enough being subjected to bullying but what is even worse is when you bring the matter to the attention of your HR Department as advised & HR then proceeds to ignore their own policies and timelines continuously for months/years on end, while you continue to have to work with the person who bullies you…. that is demoralising & that is what currently goes on in some civil/public service jobs
@Justice Mickey: Thank you.I ended up in a job i love with amazing people so he did me a favour in the end!
@Justice Mickey: HR are there to protect the company, not the employees. Don’t listen to anyone in HR trying to tell you otherwise.
Bullying is in every workplace. People with comments, snide remarks, looks, judging, deliberately leaving people out from a conversation or not inviting them to lunch etc. Then these bullies play the victim when a complaint is made, that’s all bullying if you make a person feel uncomfortable. It says so much about the person /people doing it. Some people can make others feel physically sick about going in to work because of the way they are treated and it makes me so mad. But these bullies have other issues you have to remember this.
Quite a misleading headline, at odds with the statistics presented in the body.
11 complaints in 11 months for a force of 14000. Well done to the Gardai. They seem to be well on top of the problem.
Bullying costs lives. It’s incalculable how much decent man and woman hours have been lost to the public, all around the country, through incompetent middle and senior management. Just look at the incompetence of senior management that was exposed through the Maurice McCabe affair. Just look at what came out.
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