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The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said the work of the Church is not to reflect the opinions of its members.
“The Church’s job is to reflect the point of view of her head and founder: Jesus Christ,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller said in Chile earlier this month.
The cardinal was speaking at a Mass during a plenary assembly of Chile’s bishops’ conference.
“The Lord did not follow the world’s ‘marketing’ plan with all its loud and annoying methods,” Cardinal Müller said.
“He did not write a book, rather he founded a community, the Church, which is his body.”
“Jesus never wrote a book, neither did he leave any object related with his person.
“Rather, he directed his teachings to his disciples, specifically to twelve regular men of his day, and he told them to evangelise the whole world.”
“Much confidence is required to understand how such an improbably method could have succeeded,” the cardinal said.
He then addressed the issue of the shrinking proportion of Catholics in Chile, down from 70 per cent of the population in 2002 to only 55 per cent in 2015.
“Today, a painful purification is in course,” he said, “but it is the same as when Jesus overturned the tables.”
“Purification is painful and disquieting. May it do its work. Let us remain faithful and not become discouraged. Some left, but we must remain faithful in dialogue with Jesus in his Church.”
Meanwhile, Pope Francis told Slovakia’s bishops that youth are tempted to “hedonism, mediocrity and instant success”.
The Pope told the bishops visiting Rome for their ad limina visit that “young people need to have from you clear instructions about doctrine and morals, to build, in the city of man, the city of God”.
“In our day, it is even more necessary to illuminate the path of people with Christian principles, seizing the opportunity the current situation offers to develop a new evangelisation, which, with a new language, makes it easier to understand Christ’s message,” he added.
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