“I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil,” the pope said to the Jesuits of Slovakia on his recent trip.

It was a significant revelation from Pope Francis, coming at a time when a group of bishops in the United States are pushing to deny Communion to pro-choice politicians, including President Joe Biden.

Pope Francis weighed in on the debate about whether politicians should be denied Communion because of their stance on abortion.

The pope’s message on the meaning of the cross resonated with the Greek Catholic community, whose members suffered harsh persecution and were prohibited to exist under Czechoslovakia’s Communist rule from 1948 to 1989.

On his second day in Bratislava, Pope Francis called Slovakia “to be a message of peace in the heart of Europe” and the church to evangelize with “freedom, creativity, and dialogue.”

Pope Francis called on this majority Christian nation to stop closing in on itself and to open its arms and hearts to peoples of other ethnic backgrounds, religions and cultures.