After a recent meeting with some priests and committed lay Catholics and reading the writing of others, I feel we need to consider what ecclesiology manual we are using to continue serving the Church of which we are the presbyters. I have the impression that there are some among us who find it difficult to work according to the manual of ecclesiology that Pope Francis is giving us; instead, it appears that some may prefer the ecclesiology preceding Vatican Council II.

I use the term “ecclesiology” because “the conversion” we need is not about the doctrine – that was and remains valid – but it is a “pastoral” one.

As the Pope said to Latin-American bishops in 2013 “pastoral conversion is nothing more that the exercise of the Church’s maternity. It gives birth, breastfeeds, develops, corrects, nourishes and handholds the person to help him walk. Therefore, there is the need for a Church that is capable of discovering the maternal essence of mercy.

“Without mercy, we can hardly penetrate in a world full of wounded persons who need someone to understand them and help them experience forgiveness and love.”

I believe we have to adopt the vision of Francis, not because the previous ones were faulty but because times have changed. We are observing around us an epochal change not the change of an era! Fifty or 20 years ago, the Church had a pastoral approach but today we require a different approach that corresponds to modern times.

Recently, I came across an interesting interview in La Crux with Fr Julian Carron, a priest responsible for the Communion and Liberation Movement.

He says that those who have not yet understood that Francis is the medicine we need right now have not recognised the gravity of the sickness.

It is as if one has cancer but keeps telling himself he has a cold and takes aspirin instead of chemotherapy.

There is the need for a Church that is capable of discovering the maternal essence of mercy

We would be mistaken if we reduce the crisis mankind has today to a simple economic, political or values crisis.

The crisis is much more profound than that because it involves the inner nature of man.

There are people who are asking what sense there is in life, what is the point of forming a family and more… some people have no desire to live and so they just exist. A common phenomenon among the young is the fear of confronting the future.

If we say that this is not the reality, then we do not know our people.

These are new situations and we must not continue to apply the medicine of the past. Carron justly observes that the crisis includes more than just a denial of some ethical rule.

I am convinced it is not necessarily true that whoever is making choices that do not fit in our view of morality, does not care about God.

Maybe we have a situation that is exposing how complex man is. Therefore, what that person needs is not so much moral exhortation or highly theological discussion but for him to discover the attractive force of the Gospel and Christian life.

That is what Christ did – not so much through preaching as by the personal meetings he had with all the people.

“When he visited Zaccheus, Christ did not give him a lecture in theology, nor did he explain the moral laws. Truth was incarnated in his person.”

While He “shed” his divine power, Jesus allowed truth to emerge through His attitude towards the people. Jesus communicated the truth by His loving and tolerant presence and behaviour.

When the injured man came in contact with Jesus and tasted the sweetness of His compassion, he began to be interested in Him and in His full message.

The pastoral road that ‘Peter’ is indicating to us today has a name: the culture of the personal encounter. When He embarked along this road, Christ inaugurated a new beginning.

If, as a Church, we want to establish a new life around us, this is the road that we must follow: to have the courage to ‘shed’ many things, including the pseudo-power attributed to us, and hasten to meet with the person in his own environment so that, in this meeting, he perceives the beauty of Christ.

If we continue to delay and take the wrong way, then we shall truly have a sick Church in a sick society.

We pray to the Holy Spirit to help us collaborate more with Pope Francis.