Pope Francis said he is open to criticism from Catholics who disagree with his more liberal ideas, but cautioned them not to mask their own moral deficiencies with “rigid” ideology.
“I’m not afraid of schisms,” Francis said during a news conference on his plane, according to the Associated Press. “I pray that there aren’t any because the spiritual health of so many people is at stake.”
Some in the Catholic Church have derided the pope as not traditional or conservative enough, especially on issues such as homosexuality and divorce.
A new book, How America Wants to Change the Pope, examines the values of a more neoconservative faction of Catholics who say the Pope is too liberal and thus not fit to lead the modern church.
“Let there be dialogue, correction if there is some error,” the pope said of his critics. “But the path of the schismatic is not Christian.”
Doctrine should not slip into ideology, he said.
“You’ll see that behind rigid Christians, bishops and priests there are problems,” Francis said. “We have to be meek with these people who are tempted to attack (because) behind them there are problems and we have to accompany them with meekness.”
