Pope decries 'malevolent resistance' to needed Vatican reforms

Pope Francis leaves at the end of a special audience with Vatican workers in Paul VI hall at the Vatican December 22, 2016. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis decried "malevolent" internal resistance to his campaign to reform the Vatican bureaucracy on Thursday and said lay men and women should get top jobs if they are more qualified than clerics.

For the third year running, Francis used his annual Christmas greetings to the Roman Catholic Church's central bureaucracy, or Curia, to lecture the assembled cardinals, bishops and other department heads on the need for change.