Some recent observations by Pope Francis on stances in the Church – and on what he has called ‘backwardism’

With the first session of the Synod in Rome coming closer, opposition is increasing, especially in the US. Here are some provocative statements and some photos from Pope Francis.

Quotes:

I want to remind that backwardism is useless, and it is necessary to understand that there is a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals.

And instead of living by doctrine, by the true doctrine that always develops and bears fruit, they live by ideologies, But when you abandon doctrine in life to replace it with an ideology, you have lost, you have lost as in war.

With President Zelensky

If you don't change upward, you go backward, and then you take on criteria for change different from those that the faith itself gives you to grow and change. And the effects on morality are devastating.

Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal 'security,' those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists - they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies.

What I don’t like at all, in general, is that we look at the so-called ‘sin of the flesh’ with a magnifying glass. If you exploited workers, if you lied or cheated, it didn’t matter, and instead relevant were the sins below the waist.

The door is open to everyone, everyone has their own space in the church, How will each person live it? We help people live so that they can occupy that place with maturity, and this applies to all kinds of people.

With Martin Scorsese