Vatican City, Aug 25, 2016 / 03:18 am
In a conversation with members of the Jesuit order from Poland, Pope Francis said the real life situations of everyday Catholics aren't black and white, but rather vary on a spectrum of gray.
Because of this, he stressed the need for the Church to step up formation when it comes to teaching seminarians about spiritual discernment, cautioning that many priests can't relate to or accompany the people they counsel, since they haven't been properly formed.
"Future priests need to be formed not with general and abstract ideas, which are (overly) clear and distinct, but this fine discernment of spirits, so that they can help people in their concrete lives," the Pope said in a speech to Polish Jesuits, published Aug. 25.
Seminarians and future priests, he said, "need to truly understand this: in life not everything is black and white, white and black. No! In life shades of gray predominate. We must then teach how to discern within this gray."