He made the comments to Catholic Church clergy and lay leaders in St Martin's Cathedral, Bratislava during his pastoral visit to Slovakia.

"The centre of the Church is not the Church itself" the Pope said encouraging the leaders to avoid "self-absorption" and attempts to "make ourselves look good."

Francis urged the leaders to foster dialogue with both believers and those who do not believe.

"How great is the beauty of a humble Church, a Church that does not stand aloof from the world, viewing life with a detached gaze, but lives her life within the world," he said.

"Living within the world, let us not forget: sharing, walking together, welcoming people's questions and expectations. This will help us to escape from our self-absorption, for the centre of the Church ... is not the Church."

Warning against becoming nostalgic for the past or defending Church structures, Francis "We have to leave behind undue concern for ourselves, for our structures and for what society thinks about us".

"The Church is not a fortress, a stronghold, a lofty castle, self-sufficient and looking out upon the world below," he said.

"Here in Bratislava, you have a castle and it is a fine one!" he exclaimed.

"The Church, though, is a community that seeks to draw people to Christ with the joy of the Gospel, not a castle!" he emphasized.

Francis said the Church throughout Europe must face the challenges in front of it and find "new languages for handing on the Gospel," asking, "Isn't this perhaps the most urgent task facing the Church"?

The Holy Father told the leaders that it was useless to complain and to hide behind a defensive Catholicism that blames the evil world.

Calling for creativity in name of the Gospel, Francis suggested the solution is a fine balancing act.

What the solution is not is on one hand being "content doing what we did in the past" nor on the other hand falling prey to "what the media decide we should do".

He went on to praise a Church that leaves room "for the adventure of freedom", rather than "becoming rigid and self-enclosed".

"In the spiritual life and in the life of the Church, we can be tempted to seek an ersatz peace that consoles us, rather than the fire of the Gospel that unsettles and transforms us," the pope said in Bratislava.

In concluding his address Francis encouraged the Church leaders to develop people for a mature relationship with God and not to control them too much.

"If you watch how a plant grows all the time, you kill it," he said in an impromptu aside from his written text.

Returning to his call for creativity Francis said Catholic preachers and those responsible for pastoral care of people "can no longer enter by the usual way, let us try to open up different spaces, and experiment with other means".

"No one should feel overwhelmed. Everyone should discover the freedom of the Gospel by gradually entering into a relationship with God, confident that they can bring their history and personal hurts into his presence without fear or pretense, without feeling the need to protect their own image."

"A Church that has no room for the adventure of freedom, even in the spiritual life, risks becoming rigid and self-enclosed. Some people may be used to this.

"But many others — especially the younger generations — are not attracted by a faith that leaves them no interior freedom, by a Church in which all are supposed to think alike and blindly obey."

He offered three words to help guide Catholics: freedom, creativity, and dialogue.

Then addressing the priests he urged them to "Please think of the faithful… A homily, generally, should not go beyond ten minutes… unless it is really engaging."

Those gathered in Bratislava's cathedral for the pope's address vigorously applauded the remark.

Sources

• La-Crox International
• CNA

"The story of 16-year-old Anna Kolesarova offers a strong message, of course, for the younger generation," Archbishop Bernard Bober of Kosice, Slovakia, says. Read more

The parents, of Slovak Roma origin, had asked that the children be adopted by a Catholic family.

The parents' four children were taken into care in Kent last year.

Social workers found the children were dirty, unkempt and overly chastised, and the older ones were not going to school.

The father admitted to having beaten his children.

But a court found they were unwilling to change their parenting or accept criticism.

So the two youngest boys, aged two and four, were put up for adoption by court order.

Mrs Justice Theis, who made the initial order, said that any adoption placement should be "sensitive to their needs and identity".

But the parents argued the plan by the Kent County Council to place the boys with a gay couple did not fulfil this.

The parents said the adopters' lifestyle was contrary to their Roma culture and the adoption plan amounted to social engineering.

They also said the adoption could cause psychological harm for the boys later in life because of the clash between their birth culture and the lifestyle of the adopting couple.

"The children will not be able to be brought up in the Catholic faith because of the conflicts between Catholicism and homosexuality," the parents continued.

But the High Court upheld the adoption plan.

Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division, said "The children's welfare needs outweigh the impact that adoption would have on their Roma identity".

Any judge should "respect the opinions of those who come here from a foreign land", he said.

But he had to judge matters according to English law and by reference to "the standards of reasonable men and women in contemporary English society", Sir James added.

He described as "unnecessary and hurtful" a court report submitted by social workers that stated the parents views on homosexuality could be perceived as bigoted.

The parents say they will appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.

Sources

• Daily Mail
• BBC
• Image: National Fast for Immigrant Justice

Pope Benedict removed the Slovakian archbishop from office on July 2. A communiqué from the papal nunciature in Slovakia nine days later said the Pope acted after an apostolic visitation had verified complaints in "numerous reports sent by priests and faithful to the Holy See".

At the July 1 Sunday Mass in the Trnava cathedral, Archbishop Bezak, a Redemptorist, told the congregation he did not know the specific accusations against him.

However, he said he believed one reason might be his criticism of his predecessor, Archbishop Jan Sokol, who aroused controversy for praising President Jozef Tiso, a priest who led the country during the Second World War when it was allied with the Nazis and sent tens of thousands of Jews to death camps.

Archbishop Bezak won popular respect when he announced that Tiso should have resigned as soon as the first train transporting Jews left the country.

According to the Slovak Spectator, Archbishop Bezak "had come to be seen as a symbol of generational change in the Slovak Church and was widely praised by believers for his reformist and open attitude".

Opposition to the archbishop's dismissal was expressed by some 300 Catholics who gathered in Trnava's St Nicholas' Square. They decorated photographs of the archbishop with roses, gerberas and clove gillyflowers.

An Internet petition supporting the archbishop has more than 6700 signatures.

National Catholic Reporter correspondent John Allen said supporters of Archbishop Bezak claim that he discovered serious financial irregularities from the Sokol era, and that the former Slovakian archbishop enlisted friends in the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops to act against Bezak.

Sources:

CNA

Slovak Spectator

Image: Slavorum