POPE FRANCIS GIVES MESSAGE OF UNITY ON HOLY THURSDAY

Thu 06 Apr 2023:

Pope Francis, who appeared fully recovered from bronchitis, began an intense four-day period leading up to Easter on Thursday, urging priests to avoid fomenting division in the Church and instead seek harmony if they wanted to win back lapsed faithful.

Francis, 86, was admitted to the hospital last week for bronchitis treatment after complaining of breathing difficulties. He recovered quickly after receiving antibiotics.

“Many times we priests are rude,” he said in the homily of a Holy Thursday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the day the Roman Catholic Church commemorates the birth of the priesthood.

People seeking spiritual peace and tranquillity in their lives will continue to keep their distance from the Church and view it with suspicion if they see it bogged down in internal disunity, finger-pointing and being coldly judgmental, he said.

Apart from an occasional cough during the nearly two-hour-long Mass, Francis read his homily in a clear, strong voice for 20 minutes. He frequently and confidently went off script as he called on priests to stick to their calling as peacemakers and ministers of mercy.

Francis, along with dozens of cardinals and bishops and about 1,800 priests, gathered in Christendom’s largest church and renewed the vows they took on the day of their ordination.

He urged them not to live “double lives” or turn into Church bureaucrats seeking promotions with perks and privileges, and not yearn for a past when the Church was more self-centred.

“Let’s think of the gentleness of priests. If people see even us as people who are dissatisfied and discontented old bachelors who criticise and point fingers, where else will they find harmony?” Francis asked.

“How many people fail to approach us, or keep at a distance, because in the Church they feel unwelcomed and unloved, regarded with suspicion and judged?”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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