The Church cannot risk becoming “static” but must continue as a “missionary Church that walks with her Lord through the streets of the world”, Pope Francis said yesterday. Source: CNS.
“We cannot remain inert before the questions raised by the women and men of today, before the challenges of our time, the urgency of evangelisation and the many wounds that afflict humanity,” the Pope said in his homily during the closing Mass for the Synod of Bishops in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday.
“A sedentary Church, that inadvertently withdraws from life and confines itself to the margins of reality, is a Church that risks remaining blind and becoming comfortable with its own unease,” he said.
Pope Francis delivered his homily seated in front of the basilica’s newly restored 17th-century baldachin – the gilded bronze canopy that had been shrouded in scaffolding for restoration work since February.
The previous day, the Pope received the final document approved by the more than 350 members of the Synod. The document called for the increased participation of lay men and women in all levels of Church life, including in parishes, dioceses and in seminaries.
In his homily, the Pope called on the Church not to remain in a state of “blindness” to the issues in the Church and the world, a blindness that can take the form of embracing worldliness, placing a premium on comfort or having a closed heart.
The Church must listen to men and women “who wish to discover the joy of the Gospel,” he said, but it also must listen to “those who have turned away” from faith and to “the silent cry of those who are indifferent”, as well as the poor, marginalised and desperate.
“We do not need a sedentary and defeatist Church,” he said, “but a Church that hears the cry of the world and – I want to say it, maybe someone will be scandalised – a Church that gets its hands dirty to serve the Lord.”
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