Vatican City, Apr 14, 2022 / 03:45 am
Pope Francis warned priests at the Chrism Mass on Thursday about the temptation of “hidden idols” — the poison the devil uses to draw them away from Christ’s presence and love.
“There is something about idols that is personal,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 14. “When we fail to unmask them, when we do not let Jesus show us that in them we are wrongly and unnecessarily seeking ourselves, we make room for the Evil One.”
Around 2,500 people attended the Vatican’s Chrism Mass, during which the pope, as the Bishop of Rome, blessed the Oil of the Sick, the Oil of Catechumens, and the Chrism Oil, which will be used in the diocese during the coming year.
The live-streamed papal Mass was concelebrated by around 1,800 cardinals, bishops, and priests living in Rome, who renewed the promises they made at their priestly ordinations.