Pope Francis' first year as head of the Catholic Church could not have gone much better. Beloved by the faithful and even among non-Catholics, Pope Francis has helped give Catholicism a face lift ever since he moved into the Vatican.
In one of his first acts of 2014, Francis said that a religious institution must accept "sinners, but not corrupt people," reported ABC.
During his participation in the 82nd General Assembly of the Union of Superiors General of the Institutes, Francis spoke on religious formation and said that "formation is an artisanal work, not police work."
Although the pope's annual meeting with Superiors General took place last November, it wasn't until Friday, Dec. 27 that Catholic magazine La Civilitá Cattolica published a 15-page article titled "Wake the world!" detailing the meeting, which was marked by Francis' "progressive thinking," according to La Civilitá Cattolica's Antonio Spadaro.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio warned about the risk of "accepting someone at a seminary when he has been asked to leave another religious institute," and spoke about the iron fist with which Pope Benedict XVI treated priests that committed sexual abuses.
"I'm not talking about people who acknowledge they are sinners: we're all sinners, but we're not all corrupt. Sinners are welcome, corrupt people aren't," Francis said.
Spadaro explained that the Superiors only expected a short meeting where the pope would simply greet them; however, the pope took all morning to talk about highly important matters to reform the church, according to The Huffington Post.
"Life is complex, it's made of grace and sin. If you don't sin, you're not human. We all make mistakes and we have to acknowledge our weakness. A religious man who knows he is weak and a sinner does not contradict the testimony he preaches, but strengthens it, and this does us all good," said the pope, according to Univisión.