VATICAN CITY (AP) 鈥 Amid resistance to some Vatican policy by more conservative factions of the Catholic church, Pope Francis on Saturday cautioned the faithful against fracturing into groups 鈥渂ased on our own ideas."
He issued the call to abandon 鈥渆cclesiastical ideologies鈥 in his homily in St. Peter's Basilica during Epiphany Day Mass, the last major Christmas season holiday.
Francis also warned against 鈥渂asking in some elegant religious theory鈥 instead of finding God in the faces of the poor.
Last month, for priests to bless couples outside of marriage, including same-sex relationships, as long as the blessing was pastoral and not liturgical or part of some religious rite.
Some bishops who view Francis as a dangerous progressive immediately rejected such blessings. That prompted the Vatican earlier this week to issue a statement stressing that and there were no doctrinal grounds to reject the practice.
Francis in his Epiphany homily didn't cite the . But he deviated from the written text of the homily to cite the 鈥渘eed to abandon ecclesiastical ideologies.鈥
Francis said the Church needed to ensure that "our faith will not be reduced to an assemblage of religious devotions or mere outward appearance.鈥
鈥淲e find the God who comes down to visit us, not by basking in some elegant religious theory, but by setting out on a journey, seeking the signs of his presence in everyday life," especially in the faces of the poor, the pontiff said.
The pontiff, who turned 87 last month and who battled health problems last year, held up well during the Epiphany ceremony, which included singing of Christmas hymns. At the end of the 90-minute service, an aide wheeled Francis down the basilica's center aisle. The pope has a chronic knee problem and uses a wheelchair to navigate longer distances.
He has dedicated much of his nearly 11-year-old papacy to encouraging attention to marginalized people, including the poor. While the Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful, Francis has made efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics feel welcome.
