Pope again assails ‘rigid’ young priests in new interview
August 04, 2023
» Continue to this story on Vatican News
CWN Editor's Note: In a lengthy new interview published on August 4 by the Spanish catholic magazine Vida Nueva, Pope Francis once again complains that many young priests display “rigid” attitudes, “because they are afraid in a time of insecurity that we are experiencing.”
“Behind that traditionalism, we have discovered serious moral problems and vices, double lives,” the Pope says. “We all know of bishops who, as they needed priests, have laid hands on people who had been kicked out of other seminaries as immoral.” He attributed the problem to “clericalism,” and glided over the fact that liberal bishops have welcomed priests despite complaints of immoral conduct.
In response to other questions from Vida Nueva, Pope Francis said:
- that the time “is not ripe for a Vatican Council III” because “Vatican II has not yet been launched.”
- that he still hopes to visit his native Argentina “once the election year passes” there.
- that when he traveled to Rome for the conclave in 2013, he expected to return promptly, and “I even left my sermon for Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday ready in Buenos Aires.
- that when he decries the influence of “empire” in the Americas (the Pope did not identify the “imperial” power), he realizes that “I am a stone in the shoe for more than one” person who defends the empire.
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