Pope Francis admonished “greedy” Christians who profess faith but don’t live it out in their dealings with others in a sermon during a private Thursday morning Mass in his residence.
Speaking to those who say they are "very" Catholic because they go to Mass and belong to Catholic organizations, the pope said some professing Catholics should instead say "'my life is not Christian, I don't pay my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder money, (I lead) a double life,'" Reuters reported a Vatican Radio transcript as saying.
Pope Francis even suggested it is better to be an atheist than to be hypocritical in living out Catholic beliefs.
“It is a scandal to say one thing and do another. That is a double life,” he said, Reuters reported.
The head of the Roman Catholic church has often encouraged members to live down-to-earth lives and cardinals not to act like “princes,” often declining expensive travel and apparel himself, Reuters noted.
In other impromptu sermons, the pope has suggested atheists who do good are offered God’s grace just as all people are and has condemned as a “Satanic mass” the sexual abuse of children by priests.
He also has spoken about hypocrisy in the church in previous sermons, saying that Christians who talk about the faith but don’t help others are “fake,” CNN reported.
The Catholic Catechism speaks of scandal as saying one thing and doing something different, or as leading someone else to do wrong. The church says people who encourage others to do wrong, even indirectly, are responsible for any evil that results, CNN said.