The church is not a prop for one’s ego, a soapbox for ideas or a suit of armor protecting a sad life, Pope Francis said in an interview published in the Nov. 18 edition of Avvenire, an Italian Catholic newspaper. “The church exists only as an instrument for communicating God’s merciful plan to the people.” While most of the lengthy interview’s questions touched on ecumenism and the meaning of the Year of Mercy, the pope’s responses revealed his vision of the church and the “bad spirit” or psychological defects that foster division. He said some reactions to his apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of Love,” continue to reflect a lack of understanding about how the Holy Spirit has been working in the church since the Second Vatican Council.
‘Bad Spirit’ in the Church?
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Our country is not only in a constitutional crisis; we are in a biblical crisis.
A Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, by Father Terrance Klein
Pope Leo I helped to ensure that Catholicism would outlast the Roman Empire. His name is a reminder that our faith rises above contemporary politics and temporal authority.
The Gospel parable of the “wasteful sower” who casts seeds on fertile soil as well as on a rocky path “is an image of the way God loves us,” Pope Leo XIV told 40,000 visitors and pilgrims at his first weekly general audience.