Pope warns Vatican staff an ‘elegant demon’ lurks among them

Pope Francis has long used his Christmas address for an annual dressing down of officials

Pope Francis talks with faithful dressed as the Three Wise Men at the end of his weekly general audience (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Pope Francis has warned Vatican bureaucrats to beware the devil that lurks among them, saying it is an “elegant demon” that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.

Francis used his annual Christmas greeting to the Roman Curia to again put the cardinals, bishops and priests who work in the Holy See on notice that they are by no means beyond reproach and are in fact particularly vulnerable to evil.

Francis told them that, by living in the heart of the Catholic Church, “we could easily fall into the temptation of thinking we are safe, better than others, no longer in need of conversion.”