Pope trying to show kinder face of Catholic Church

I was surprised to read “Pope is too lenient because of no heart” (Letters, Oct 10) I am not sure, to be fair, if the title reflected accurately the views of the writer, a member of the Third Franciscan order in the US, who wrote his concerns that Pope Francis thinks more with reason than with a spiritual conscience informed by traditional Catholic Church teaching on some moral issues.

Pope Francis is, I think, trying to show the human and kinder face of the Church, that it isn’t all rules and regulation.

The cardinals told him on his election this year that they want to see a shake-up, especially in the Vatican’s curia or civil service.

He has been doing that, slowly but surely. He may come across as not too strongly strict on some parts of traditional Church teaching, which may have made the above writer uneasy, but I think the pope wants the Church to be kinder to its members.

He speaks with common sense, reason and spiritual conscience in humanising the Church and connecting it more with its members, and said that the Church does not have to talk about contraception and abortion all the time, that there are other issues that it needs to attend to, for it not to be seen publicly as one-dimensional.

He is aware that his Church lost credibility on teaching on moral issues, when in the past, it did not do enough to protect thousands of children from paedophile priests in a lot of countries over a long period of time.

He is determined to change the Vatican’s centric attitudes, to be more aware of the real world and the challenges and difficulties facing cardinals, priests and its lay people. I think his candour is refreshing. Some things don’t change. The Church is again in need of renewal, perhaps with a 3rd Vatican Council.

M Sullivan

College Road

Cork