Pope Francis has issued the second post-synodal exhortation of his pontificate. Christus vivit (Christ lives) was published on Tuesday. It argues that the sex abuse crisis, a history of sexism and a focus on a handful of moral issues can keep young people away from the Church. The Church must listen, the Pope writes. “A Church always on the defensive, which loses her humility and stops listening to others, which leaves no room for questions, loses her youth and turns into a museum.”
There was no single point which dominated the responses. At catholicherald.co.uk, John Hayward noted that, although the passages about doctrinal “obsession” might attract controversy, “the truly striking chapters are those in which the Holy Father speaks with the directness and simplicity which are his greatest strengths. He addresses young people with what he calls his ‘Great Message’: the Love of God the Father, made visible in the new life won by Christ.”
