Vatican Fireworks: Pope Francis Slams Corruption In Rome In New Year's Eve Homily

Exploding verbal fireworks on New Year's Eve, Pope Francis vigorously denounced corruption in Rome, disclosing a "mafia-like" organization within the halls of the city government.

The Pope's latest tirade followed his denunciation of the Curia on Dec. 22 when he blasted the priests, bishops and cardinals who run the central administration of the Roman Catholic Church for their "spiritual Alzheimer's disease" among other "ailments."

This time, Pope Francis, who is also the bishop of Rome, trained his sight on the administrators of the Italian capital, the center of Christianity, during his impromptu homily at a New Year's Eve vespers service attended by thousands in St. Peter's Basilica.

He condemned the city's corrupt administrators whom he accused of pocketing public funds meant to help poor migrants in a scheme that also involves the city's underworld gangs.

Earlier in December, the Italian police arrested 37 suspects in an illegal scheme where public contracts are funnelled to people close to the alleged boss of a right-wing extremist organization with well established ties to Rome's underworld.

Following the arrests, Rome's mayor, Ignazio Marino, ordered a review of all city contracts even as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi proposed tougher national laws against corruption.

The contracts in question involved the maintenance of migrant centers and camps for the city's poor. Investigators said public funds are being siphoned off by corrupt city administrators and their criminal cohorts instead of being used to improve the sordid conditions of these facilities for the poor.

During the investigation of the scandal, one of those arrested hinted at the massive amount of public funds being channelled to corrupt officials. "Have you got any idea how much you can make out of immigrants? Drug trafficking brings in less," he said, referring to government subsidies intended to provide services at temporary camps for migrants.

Robbed of the city's financial support, the city's poor are now being made to feel like criminals and "forced to behave like mafiosi" to defend themselves, Pope Francis said, calling Rome "our city."

"We have to defend the poor, not defend ourselves from the poor. We have to serve the weak, not use the weak," the Pope said as he emphatically defended their rights.

Pope Francis called for a conversion of hearts as well as for a "renewed commitment to create a more just and stable city, where the poor the weak, and the marginalized are at the center of our concern and our daily activities."

The poor and weak, when cared for, "reveal the treasure of the Church" and of society, he said. On the other hand, when the poor are ignored, "persecuted, criminalized," and forced into a life of crime, the society is revealed to be "impoverished to the point of misery."

This society "loses freedom" and "ceases to be Christian," he said.

In his homily, the 78-year-old Pontiff also reflected on life's fleetingness. "How we like to be surrounded by so many fireworks, seemingly beautiful, but which in reality last only a few minutes," said the spiritual leader of the more than 1.2 billion Catholics in the world.

There is a "time to be born and a time to die" and New Year's also is a time to reflect on our mortality, "the end of the path of life," Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis turned his reflection to the words of Paul to the Galatians, taken from the evening's Vespers: "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."

"Time was – in a manner of speaking – 'touched' by Christ," he said. This should inspire people "to think about the end of life's journey," the Pope said.

By examining our conscience, we revisit what we have done, giving thanks for the good we have received and have been able to accomplish, all the while recalling "our weaknesses and our sins," he said.

Pope Francis said people should ask themselves: "Do we live as children or as slaves? Do we live as persons baptized in Christ, united by the Spirit, redeemed, free? Or do we live according to earthly logic, corrupt, doing that which the devil makes us believe is in our best interest?"

This "slavery" of sin, he said, reduces time to the mere "moment," preventing "us from fully and truly living in the present, for it empties the past and closes the door to the future, to eternity."

Afterward, the pontiff, wearing a long white coat, a scarf and a thin skull cap, braved frigid air to admire the life-size Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square. He then walked around shaking the hands of people lined up behind barriers to greet him.