BRAZIL
Seattle Times
By TRACY WILKINSON
Los Angeles Times
RIO DE JANEIRO — Pope Francis on Saturday issued what the Vatican said was one of the most important speeches of his papacy, taking to task the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil for hemorrhaging droves of followers to other faiths or to apathy.
Speaking to bishops from around the country, Francis blamed the “exodus” on a long list of failings by the church and leaders, and took a direct swipe at the “intellectual” message of the church that so characterized the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. He said ordinary Catholics don’t relate to such lofty ideas and need to hear the simpler message of love, forgiveness and mercy that is at the core of the Catholic faith.
“At times we lose people because they don’t understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people,” he said. “Without the grammar of simplicity, the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery.”
Outlining the kind of church he wants, Francis asked bishops to reflect on millions of Catholics who left the church for Protestant and Pentecostal congregations that have grown exponentially in recent decades, particularly in Brazil’s slums, or favelas, where their charismatic message and nuts-and-bolts advice is welcomed by the poor.
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