In his address to the bishops and clergy of Slovakia in the Cathedral of St. Martin, in Bratislava, Pope Francis wanted to touch on a topic that is particularly close to his heart, opening a wide brackets 'off the cuff' on preaching. "Someone told me that in 'Evangelii gaudium' I stopped too much on the homily, because it is one of the problems of this time - he began -. Yes, the homily is not a sacrament, as some Protestants claimed, but it is a It is not a sermon of Lent, no, it is something else. It is in the heart of the Eucharist ".
"And let us think of the faithful - he then warned -, who must hear homilies lasting 40 minutes, 50 minutes, on topics they do not understand, which do not affect them ...". "Please, priests and bishops - Francis exhorted - think well how to prepare the homily, how to do it, so that there is contact with the people and take inspiration from the biblical text".
"A homily, usually - he prescribed -, should not go beyond ten minutes, because after eight minutes people lose their attention, as long as it is very interesting. But the time should be 10-15 minutes, not more".
"A professor I had of homiletics - the Pope recalled - said that a homily must have internal coherence: an idea, an image and an affection; that people leave with an idea,an image and something that moved in the heart ".
"So, simple, it is the proclamation of the Gospel! - he underlined - And so he preached, Jesus who took the birds, who took the fields, who took this ... concrete things, but that people understood. Excuse me if I come back. about this, but it worries me ... ".
And after the immediate applause from the nave, Bergoglio added: "I allow myself a malice: the applause was initiated by the sisters, who are victims of our homilies!".
Still in the speech in the Cathedral to the Slovak bishops and priests, the Pope allowed himself another incident 'off the cuff', touching on the theme of the Church which must be a "sign of freedom and welcome" and of the proclamation of the Gospel that "it is liberating, never overwhelming ". "I am sure that this will never be known where it comes from - he said -. I will tell you something that happened some time ago. The letter from a Bishop, speaking of a Nuncio. He said: 'Well, we were 400 years under the Turks and we suffered. Then 50 under communism and we suffered. But the seven years with this Nuncio were worse than the other two things! ". Sometimes I ask myself: how many people can say the same about the bishop he has or the parish priest? people? No, without freedom, without paternity, things don't work out ". (HANDLE).
