Before conclave, cardinal warns of cruelty hidden behind “elegant speeches”

As the Catholic Church’s cardinals prepare to elect a new pope, they must be wary of “elegant speeches” that hide a subtle cruelty toward the poor and vulnerable, said the Vatican’s former doctrinal chief.

Celebrating a memorial Mass for Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica 1 May, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, former prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that disrespect for the poor can be expressed not only in openly “cruel and vain” terms, but also in refined language.

“Those words”—such as calling the poor “lazy,” he said—”are also found hidden behind other, more elegant speeches.”

Cardinal Fernández celebrated Mass with cardinals on the sixth day of the “novendiali”—nine days of mourning for Pope Francis marked by Masses.

The cardinals did not gather for their general congregation meetings earlier in the day since 1 May is a holiday for Vatican City State to observe the feast of St Joseph the Worker.

It also is the equivalent of Labor Day in Italy and many other countries. With members of the Roman Curia were seated in the front rows, the cardinal said that distorted ideas of merit and success—what Pope Francis denounced as “false meritocracy”—risk obscuring the Gospel truth of human dignity.