Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis has urged an end to a cold, fearful Church that forgets Christ is always by its side and worries about power and influence.

Speaking at a meeting workers and addressing a major gathering of the Catholic Church in Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore yesterday, the Pope outlined his vision for the Church’s future by saying: “These times of ours demand that we experience problems as challenges and not like obstacles: The Lord is active and at work in the world.”

In a trip that covered a normal 8-to-5 workday, the Holy Father rallied workers, young people and hundreds of Church leaders representing the entire Italian peninsula; he met with the sick and venerated an ancient relic. He ate lunch with the poor and homeless and celebrated Mass in the Artemio Franchi football stadium.

National congress

Speaking to hundreds of Italian cardinals, bishops and laypeople attending a national congress held only every 10 years, the Pope gave a lengthy, yet clear indication of where their discussions and pastoral mission should be heading.

“We must not tame the power of the face of Jesus,” who takes on the face of the humiliated, the enslaved and ‘the emptied,’ he said. A divine Christ reflects a very human gaze of humility and selflessness, and he insists his disciples follow the Beatitudes like he did, the Pope continued.

“We must not be obsessed with power,” the Pope added, even if it is a useful or seemingly innocuous way of getting things done. Otherwise the Church ‘loses its way, loses its meaning.’

The Pope said the Beatitudes indicate whether the Church is following its mission or is only thinking of protecting its own interests. Measuring oneself against the Beatitudes ‘is a mirror that never lies,’ he said. Do not feel superior and place complete trust in structures and perfect plans, he advised. This focus on the abstract and on security ‘often leads us to take on a style of control, harshness, regulation.’

When ‘facing evils or problems in the Church,’ he said, ‘it is useless to seek solutions in conservatism and fundamentalism, in the restoration of outdated conduct and forms’ that are no longer culturally relevant or meaningful.

A bishop will find support by leaning on his people and through prayer

Christian doctrine, in fact, isn’t a closed system void of questions or doubts, but is alive, restless, animated. Its face ‘isn’t rigid, its body moves and develops, it has tender flesh. Its name is Jesus Christ.’

The same spirit that drove Italian explorers to seek new worlds, unafraid of storms and open seas, can drive the church in Italy, the Holy Father added said, if it lets itself be driven by the breath of the Holy Spirit, ‘free and open to challenges of the present, never in defence out of fear of losing something.’

The Pope told a story of a bishop who was travelling on the underground during rush hour. It was so packed, there was nothing to hold on to, and ‘pushed right and left’ by the swaying car, the bishop leaned on the people around him so as not to fall. A bishop will find support, he said, by leaning on his people and through prayer.

Prato

The Pope flew by helicopter from Rome earlier in the morning to land first in the industrial town of Prato on the outskirts of Florence. He apologised for his brief 90-minute visit there, saying he had come as ‘a pilgrim, a pilgrim in passing.’

In the town’s cathedral, he venerated the Holy Belt of Our Lady, an ancient band of wool traditionally believed to have belonged to Mary and used to wrap her flowing robes around her waist.

From the cathedral balcony, he greeted thousands of people who had woken very early for the 8am encounter or slept there overnight in sleeping bags. Addressing young people and workers, especially foreign workers, the Pope criticised the ‘cancer’ of corruption and exploitation, calling it the ‘venom’ of a culture built on operating outside the law.

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Pic: Pope Francis greets the crowd as he arrives to celebrate Mass at the Artemio Franchi football stadium in Florence, Italy, yesterday. The Pope also addressed Italy’s bishops and cardinals in the Duomo during his one-day visit to Florence