Pope Francis begins landmark meetings to reform the Vatican

Pope describes Vatican as an institution "too focused on its own interests".

VATICAN CITY // Pope Francis has begun landmark meetings to reform the Vatican, promising to do all he can to change the mentality of an institution he says is too focused on its own interests.

Francis and eight cardinals from around the world are holding three days of closed-door meetings to discuss the Vatican’s troubled administration and to map out possible changes in the Roman Catholic Church.

As the talks began, the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper published a long interview conducted by its atheist editor in which the Argentine pope spoke frankly about the problems facing the Vatican administration, known as the Curia.

Francis said too many previous popes in the Church’s long history had been “narcissists” who let themselves be flattered by “courtier” aides in the Curia instead of concentrating on the wider mission of the universal church.

“The (papal) court is the leprosy of the papacy,” said Francis, who has brought a new style of openness, consultation and simplicity to the Vatican. There are some “courtiers” among administrators in today’s Curia, he said, adding that its main defect is that it is too inward-looking.

“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,” he said.

Francis said the eight cardinals he had chosen to make up his advisory board did not have selfish motives.

* Reuters