Francis’ Christmas Speech: Did He [Again] Slander Whistle-Blower Viganò?

Pope Francis began his annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia (December 21) with a “warm welcome” to the new Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, who reportedly had gay affairs.

Nevertheless, Francis spoke at length about clerical abuses, performed by [mainly homosexual] members of the Church who fear neither God nor his judgement but only to be unmasked. He also called to separate “real from false cases, accusations from slander”.

Francis further mentioned those who “hide behind good intentions in order to stab their brothers in the back and to sow weeds, division and bewilderment” calling them an "affliction".

In this context he evoked again “the Great Accuser” as the one “who brings division, sows discord, insinuates enmity”. This could have been a reference to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò who revealed that Francis was directly involved in hushing up the McCarrick scandal.

Finally, Francis listed as joys of 2018 the [failed] Youth Synod, the [failed] reform of the Curia and [modest] efforts towards transparency in Vatican finances.

At the end, Francis distributed a copy of the dusty “Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology” by Adolphe Tanquerey (+1932).

Twitter-User "Catholic Sat" points out that there were a dozen of empty seats being the "the first time in this Pontificate that absences at this annual event have been noticeable" [video below].

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