Pope demands humility in new zinger-filled Christmas speech

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has urged Vatican cardinals, bishops and bureaucrats to embrace humility this Christmas season. Francis used his annual Christmas address on Thursday to take Vatican administrators to task for their perceived moral and personal failings.

He said their pride, self-interest and the "glitter of our armor" was perverting their spiritual lives and corrupting the church's mission. Francis denounced 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.