PANAJI
Denouncing clericalism as a whip, a scourge and a form of worldliness that defiles and damages the face of the Church, Pope Francis also expressed pain to find in some parish offices the “price list” of sacramental services in the manner of a supermarket.
Delivering his remarks in Spanish on Wednesday at the 18th General Congregation of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis claimed that when “ministers go too far in their service and mistreat the people of God, they disfigure the face of the Church with macho and dictatorial attitudes.”
“It is painful to find in some parish offices the “price list” of sacramental services in the manner of a supermarket. Either the Church is the faithful people of God on the way, saint and sinner, or it ends up being a company of various services,” remarked Pope Francis.
“And when pastoral workers take this second path, the Church becomes the supermarket of salvation and the priests mere employees of a multinational corporation. This is the great defeat to which clericalism leads us. And this is very sad and scandalous.”
“Clericalism is a whip, it is a scourge, it is a form of worldliness that defiles and damages the face of the Lord’s bride; it enslaves God’s holy and faithful people.”
The Pope said the faithful people of God “go forward with patience and humility, enduring the scorn, mistreatment, and marginalisation of institutionalised clericalism.”
