Pope renews critique of 'rigid' Catholicism (CNA)

Pope Francis emphasized the “creativity of the Gospel” in a September 13 address in Slovakia, and sharply criticized “defensive” or “rigid” Catholicism. “The Church is not a fortress,” he said, and a more creative approach to the Gospel should “help us to escape from our self-absorption.”

To illustrate the danger of an approach that is “rigid and self-enclosed,” the Pope took the highly unusual step of advancing public criticism of his own representative in Slovakia. He said that he had received a letter from a bishop, complaining about the papal nuncio, and saying:

We were 400 years under the Turks and we suffered. Then 50 under communism and we suffered. But the seven years with this nuncio were worse than the other two.

The Pope did not name the bishop who made that criticism, or the nuncio at whom it was directed. But he asked rhetorically: “Sometimes I wonder: how many people can say the same about the bishop they have, or the parish priest?”