Church seeks for lost sheep, not 'perfect organizational chart,' Pope says
December 09, 2014
A Church leader should have a “shepherd’s heart” rather than functioning as a “good businessman,” Pope Francis said in a homily at daily Mass on December 9.
Commenting in the Gospel about the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find one stray, the Pope remarked that this might not be good business practice. But a pastor follows a different logic, he said. “He goes out looking until he finds the one lost and celebrates; he's joyful.”
When the Church devotes energies to the search for those lost sheep, the Pope said, she “becomes a mother, becomes fruitful.” He contrasted that approach with the sterile approach of a church with “a perfect organizational chart with everything in place, everything tidy, but it lacks joy, lacks celebrations, lacks peace.” In that case, he said, the church has become focused on itself and “is more like an old maid than a mother.”
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