The Catholic Church must “proclaim Jesus Christ,” otherwise it risks falling short of its mission, Pope Francis I said on his first day as head of the 1.2-billion member Catholic Church.
“We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don’t proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong,” The Christian Post quoted Pope Francis I as saying Thursday. “We would become a compassionate NGO and not a Church which is the bride of Christ.
“He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil. When we don’t proclaim Jesus Christ, we proclaim the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon,” the Pope added. “We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way.”
Francis, formerly Jorge Bergoglio, succeeds Pope Benedict XVI, who last month became the first pope to resign in more than 600 years. The Argentinean Francis is the first non-European pope in more than 1,3000 years and the first pope from the Americas.
“When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly,” Retuers quoted the Pope as saying.
He added, according to Reuters: “We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord.”
