A smiling challenge to the Church: Pope Francis in Florence

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis during his one-day visit to Florence on Tuesday (Nov. 10) spoke to the Fifth National Convention of the Italian Church gathered in St. Mary of the Flower Cathedral.

In his programmatic speech, Pope Francis laid out his vision for "a new humanism in Christ Jesus."

Chiara Giaccardi is a member of the preparatory committee for the event and professor of sociology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.

She spoke to Vatican Radio’s Alessandro Gisotti about the impact of Pope Francis’ words on the assembly.

Listen to the full interview:

His smile tipped them off.  Something important was coming. 

In what followed, Pope Francis told the assembly what was wrong with the Church.  "Everybody was moved by his parresia, his benevolent way of telling what is wrong in the Church, but like a father who loves his sons and daughters, not like a judge," Ms. Giaccardi said.

"We need to start with mercy", she continued, "and this is the way that Jesus Christ is telling us where to go and how to go."

Agreeing that the Holy Father's speech is also a challenge to the Italian Church to work together, she said it is "a challenge to be free, which is not easy at all".

"The Church is not free because of money, because of power, because of the image in the media. Pope Francis invited all the Church and all the people to be free from [that which] is not able to make us happy and to make us free."

Concluding, Ms. Giaccardi said, "And the bishop can be happy only with the sheep, only among his people, and this is the same for all the Church. The Church must be close to the people. This is the only way to be [the] real Church of Jesus Christ."