Pope Francis called for Church unity at Mass on Tuesday, commemorating the Second Vatican Council’s 60th anniversary.
Known as Vatican II (1962-1965), the Council taught the Church to see the world around it, Francis said.
In his homily, he described the special Mass an act of love toward God and a remedy to the acute polarisation afflicting the modern church.
The present-day is one of the most polarised periods in modern Catholic history, he said. But God wants faithful “to see the whole” of the Church, and not just certain parts of it.
“The Church is a communion in the image of the Trinity. The devil, on the other hand, wants to sow the darnel of division.
“Let us not give in to his enticements or to the temptation of polarisation. How often times, in the wake of the Council, did Christians prefer to choose sides in the Church, not realizing that they were breaking their Mother’s heart!”
“How many times did they prefer to cheer on their own party rather than being servants of all? To be progressive or conservative rather than being brothers and sisters? To be on the ‘right’ or ‘left,’ rather than with Jesus?” he asked.
In recent decades some of the Council’s teachings have become deeply controversial, particularly in rich countries, where divisions often fall along political lines.
Both sides are at fault, Francis said. “Both the ‘progressivism’ that lines up behind the world and the ‘traditionalism’ and ‘moving backwards’ that longs for a bygone world are not evidence of love, but of infidelity.”
Rather than “quarrels, gossip and disputes,” over Council reforms, people should “live their faith with joy, without grumbling and criticising”.
Reflecting Jesus asking St Peter, “Do you love me?” and telling him to “Feed my sheep”, Francis said the Council was the Church’s response to that question.
It marked a renewed effort to feed all God’s sheep, not just those who are Catholic, he explained.
However, two of his predecessors – Benedict and John Paul II promoted the Latin Mass in an olive branch to conservatives.
Francis reintroduced the restrictions last year, saying his predecessors’ well-intentioned leniency was being “exploited” for ideological reasons.
Religious conservatives have used the Latin Mass debate to align with politically conservative media outlets to criticise Francis over issues such as climate change, immigration and social justice.
Catholics should not “prefer to cheer on their own party” but be servants of all, Francis said in his homily.
They should want to be known as brothers and sisters rather than progressives or conservatives.
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