Pope Francis prodded priests, nuns and bishops to think less of their careers in the church to avoid "creating little monsters," according to MSN News.
Since Francis' election as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, he said that men studying for the priesthood should be properly trained, else the Church risks having servants concerned with their careers more than the people they serve.
Published last Friday, January 3, Francis made comments in November saying priests should leave their comfort zones. Instead, they [priests] should get out among people on the margins to avoid becoming "abstract ideologists."
Civilta Cattolica, an Italian Jesuit journal, published an exclusive text of Francis' comments made during the pope's closed-door meeting with heads of orders of priests from around the world, the report said.
"Formation (of future priests) is a work of art, not a police action. We must form their hearts," comments of Francis went. "Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mould the people of God. This really gives me goose bumps."
Francis has tried to refocus his attention on the basic Christian teachings of compassion, simplicity, and humility after he has taken over a Catholic establishment marred by child sex abuse, financial scandals and others. It was reported that the Catholic Church has been losing members to other religions due to its strict dogmatism.
"The ghost to fight against is the image of religious life understood as an escape or hiding place in face of an 'external' difficult and complex world," he told the superiors and head priests.
"This is really very important to me: the need to become acquainted with reality by experience, to spend time walking on the periphery in order really to become acquainted with the reality and life-experiences of people," Francis said. "If this does not happen we then run the risk of being abstract ideologists or fundamentalists, which is not healthy."
