ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV kicked off a weeklong celebration of Catholic clergy Tuesday by encouraging seminarians to be joyful and honest, offering an uplifting message after Pope Francis frequently castigated priests and decried what he called the sin of “clericalism.”
History’s first American pope presided over a rollicking encounter with thousands of young men who were in Rome for a special Jubilee week celebrating seminarians, priests and bishops.
Tuesday’s encounter turned St. Peter’s Basilica into something resembling a concert venue, with seminarians waving their national flags, interrupting Leo frequently with applause and shouts of “Papa Leone” and straining against barricades to kiss his ring as he passed.
In his remarks, Leo thanked the seminarians for agreeing to devote their lives to the church and said that with their energy “you fuel the flame of hope in the life of the church.” He urged them to be brave, joyful, truthful and not hide behind masks or live hypocritical lives.
“You also have to learn to give a name and voice to sadness, fear, anxiety and indignation, bringing everything before God,” the Augustinian pope told them. “Crises, limitations, fragilities aren’t to be hidden, but are rather occasions for grace.”
Francis also frequently met with seminarians, priests and bishops. But he often had a message of tough love, railing against what he called clericalism, or the tendency to put priests and clergy on a pedestal. For Francis, cle …