The Roman Catholic Church, from the lowliest priest to the pontiff himself, must strip itself of all “vanity, arrogance and pride” and humbly serve the poorest members of society, Pope Francis said Friday.
The Roman Catholic Church, from the lowliest priest to the pontiff himself, must strip itself of all “vanity, arrogance and pride” and humbly serve the poorest members of society, Pope Francis said Friday. The Pope’s appeal, in the central Italian town of Assisi, where his namesake Saint Francis lived in the 12th century, comes amid a drive by Pope Francis to turn around a Church plagued by financial and sexual abuse scandals. Saint Francis is revered by Catholics and many other Christians for his simplicity, poverty and love of nature — qualities the Argentinian-born pontiff has made the keynote of his papacy since his election in March. “This is a good occasion to invite the Church to strip itself of worldliness — a danger that threatens everyone in the Church, all of us,” he said in a room that marks the spot where St. Francis stripped naked as a young man, renounced his wealthy family and set out to serve the poor.
