BY Daniel Harkins | September 9 | 
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Parishes with closed doors are museums not churches, Pope says
The Church should not be a sect for the privileged, Holy Father told pilgrims at his weekly general audience
Parishes with closed doors are museums not churches Pope Francis said today during his weekly general audience this morning.
“Always with open doors,” the Holy Father said to pilgrims in St Peter’s Square. “The churches, the parishes, the institutions with closed doors cannot be called churches, they must be called museums.
“That is the Church. It does not want to be a sect for the privileged, but instead a hospitable family, a house where everyone, without exception, can be welcomed and loved.
“Today this is a crucial alliance. Against the centres of power, ideology, finance, and politics. We put our hopes in these centres of love.”
The Pope also continued his catechesis on the family, saying there is a close bond between the family and the Church.
“The Church is the home of those who believe in Jesus Christ as the source of the unity of the entire human family. Christ chose to enter our history, to become part of a human family, and to form a community which welcomes all who wish to hear his good news of the Father’s love. There is a close bond, then, between the family and the Church.
“Families and parishes are the two places where we encounter, in every age, that communion of love which has its ultimate source in God. Just as our families are domestic churches, our parishes are called to be welcoming families. This ‘covenant’ has to be renewed, with the courage and vision born of faith, so that these centres of love, evangelisation, and solidarity can, with the help of God’s grace and despite all our limitations, work true miracles for the shaping of a more fraternal and humane world.”
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