'Good and evil are totally entwined', said Pope Francis at the Vatican this morning, declaring that 'we are all sinners'. He implored Christians not to label any one group or place as bad, warning against a judgmental 'Church of the pure'.
'The Lord, who is wisdom incarnate, today helps us to understand that good and evil cannot identify with definite territories or determined groups of people,' the Pope said at his weekly Angelus address in St Peter's Square at the Vatican, according to Catholic News Agency.
He added: 'the line between good and evil passes through the heart of every person.' Francis invited anyone who was sinless to raise their hand, to which no one did. 'We are all sinners,' he declared.
The pontiff reflected on the reading of the day, from Matthew's Gospel, the parable in which an enemy plants weeds alongside good wheat in his master's field.
The story, Francis said, illustrates God's good work alongside the work of the devil intended to corrupt the good – the patient master (God) allows both to grow so the harvest is not lost.
'With this image, Jesus tells us that in this world good and evil are totally entwined, that it's impossible to separate them and weed out all the evil,' the Pope said.
'Only God can do this, and he will do it in the final judgment.'
He warned against 'a Church of the "pure" which pretends to judge before it's time who is in the Kingdom of God and who is not'.
The sacrament of confession is necessary, Francis said, because 'we always need to be forgiven for our sins...to always look at the evil that is outside of us means not wanting to recognize the sin that is also within us.'
The Pope pointed to the 'freedom of Christians' to choose between good and evil, and the need to trust God in the endeavour.
He said that Jesus' parable shows how 'Thanks to the beneficial influence of an anxious waiting, what were weeds or seemed like weeds, can become a product of good.'
This, Francis said, is 'the prospect of hope!'
