Pope Leo urges joyful, welcoming Church in speech to Vatican cardinals

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Pope Leo indicated on Monday that he plans to follow the reform agenda of his predecessor Francis, praising the late pontiff's attempts to make the global Catholic Church more inclusive in an annual Christmas address to Vatican cardinals.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, told the Church's senior-most officials that Francis, who died in April, had been a "prophetic voice" who strived to create "a joyful Church, welcoming to all and attentive to the poorest".

Francis, who led the 1.4 billion-member Church for 12 years, often used his annual Christmas speech with the cardinals to deliver blistering critiques of their work.

In several lengthy speeches over the years, he listed what he called the "illnesses" and "diseases" of the Vatican's central bureaucracy, known as the Roman Curia.

Leo, who has a more diplomatic style than his Argentine predecessor, spoke for only 15 minutes and offered no such rebukes. But he repeated many themes central to Francis' papacy.

The pope warned officials against "falling into rigidity or ideology" in enforcing Church teachings and said the Vatican’s complex structure "must not weigh down or slow the progress" of their work.

He lamented that interpersonal conflicts sometimes mar Vatican operations.

"We observe with disappointment that certain dynamics - linked to the exercise of power, the desire to prevail, or the pursuit of personal interests - are slow to change," Leo said.

"We then ask ourselves: is it possible to be friends in the Roman Curia?"

Leo called for "an ever more missionary Roman Curia, in which institutions, offices and tasks are conceived in light of today's major ecclesial, pastoral and social challenges, and not merely to ensure ordinary administration."

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee. Editing by Mark Potter)