Pope apologizes for missing meeting of Argentine bishops' conference

April 18, 2013

In a message to the bishops of Argentina, who are meeting in Pilar this week, Pope Francis joked that “recent commitments” made it impossible for him to attend the gathering.

The Pope, a former president of the Argentine bishops’ conference, asked his colleagues to pray for him “so that I do not grow proud.”

Sounding a familiar theme of his pontificate, the Holy Father told the Argentine bishops: “A Church that does not come out of itself, sooner or later becomes sick from the stale air of closed rooms.” He warned against “narcissism” in the clergy, saying that it leads to “spiritual frivolity and affected clericalism.”

 

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Further information:

• Mission is key to the Church, which becomes sick if it remains closed on itself, pope says (AsiaNews)