Vatican City
Pope Francis vowed Monday to power ahead with the reform of the Curia, the Church's "diseased" governing body, throwing down the gauntlet to those fostering a climate of intrigue, greed and double-crossing in the Vatican.
His annual address to cardinals, bishops and priests running the Holy See echoed his speech at this time last year, when he suggested the Vatican's administrative hierarchy was beset by a "spiritual Alzheimer's" and a lust for power.
Though the December 2014 speech embarrassed and infuriated many of the Vatican's top figures, it appeared to have failed to convince the unruly Curia to change its ways -- with fresh scandals blotting the government's copybook in 2015.
The pope reminded the Curia he had chastised them last year for "certain temptations or maladies... diseases which call for prevention, vigilance, care and, sadly, in some cases, painful and prolonged interventions."
"Some of these diseases became evident in the course of the past year, causing no small pain to the entire body and harming many souls," he said, in a reference to a second embarrassing leaks scandal at the heart of the Holy See.
Three people accused of stealing and leaking secret papers are currently on trial at the Vatican, along with two journalists accused of publishing the documents, which depict irregularities and extravagance in the Holy See's spending.
The year has also been marked by allegations of clerical sex abuse, stories of wild Vatican parties, accusations of charity money being spent on a cardinal's apartment and rumours appearing to originate within the Church of the pope's ill health.
