For some time now, society, and within it the Church, has been witnessing waves of information that fill it with perplexity and sadness in the face of serious scandals of various kinds, or less scandalous but not very exemplary behavior, or simply in the face of the sins and human failings of Christians.
Of course, the baptized have more motives and more help to do good, and they should know more clearly the goal to which their condition as followers of Christ summons them, which is holiness. In particular, the duty of exemplarity is greater in those who in some way represent the Church publicly.
As a first step, these situations make us aware that, as far as the possibilities of doing evil are concerned, all people are equal. But in addition, and in the first place, they must serve the baptized to become aware of the need to rectify one's conduct in many aspects, to convert and do penance, to have recourse to divine mercy, to have recourse to the grace offered in the sacrament of Confession; if one knows one's evident personal fallibility, all this is inseparable from the true desire to progress along the path of Jesus Christ. Sacred Scripture refers to human life as a "militia" in which each one struggles with himself. The holiness to which we are all called is not a reality that comes about automatically by the very fact of being "Catholic". Its crowning will come at the end, and it will be after a judgment in which each one will be tested by his works.
What about the Church as such, that which we proclaim in the Creed as "holy"?
In what sense have we used this expression since the early days of Christianity? Above all, is this attribution of "holiness" still valid today? After abuses, errors, etc., to what extent is this affirmation affected, or does it need to be corrected? Some feel an intellectual reaction similar to that of those who found it difficult to continue to speak of God after Auschwitz; others may think that holiness can be "demanded" of Catholics, as if the only possible Church were that of the pure; there will also be those who trust that the most appropriate disciplinary and juridical measures will solve the problems.
Now, as Francis often explains, the reform of the Church, as far as it is appropriate and precisely in order to be effective, must begin with a reform of the hearts of each person.
