In his pre-conclave speech, the then Cardinal Bergoglio told his fellow cardinals, "The church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries." He then warned of the dangers of a "self-referential" church" "When the church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick. . . . The self-referential church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out. . . . When the church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae. . . . It lives to give glory only to one another." The call to go out to the peripheries has to have implications for Christian unity. It is the "self-referential" church that has no interest or zeal to go out to the other without which Christian unity cannot happen.
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 101. / Address of Pope Francis to media representatives, in the Paul VI Auidience Hall, Vatican City, March 15, 2013. Text made known by Cardinal Ortega of Havana, Cuba, with the agreement of Pope Francis.
Community of Jesus-followers Living Out John 17
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