Pope Francis talks about finding a new balance

This from Pope Francis.

Pope Francis has criticised the Roman Catholic church for becoming “obsessed” with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception and said he has chosen not to speak of those issues despite recriminations from some critics.

In the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, Francis used remarkably blunt language as he sought to set a new tone for the church, saying it should be a “home for all” and not a “small chapel” focused on doctrine, orthodoxy and a limited agenda of moral teachings.

“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” the pope told Fr Antonio Spadaro, a fellow Jesuit and editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal whose content is routinely approved by the Vatican.

“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently,” said Francis.
“We have to find a new balance, otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”