Pope Francis has said he is visiting mostly Protestant and deeply secular Sweden next week to take a step forward in Christian unity. "My hope and expectation is that of coming closer to my brothers and sisters," the pope told Civiltà Cattolica ahead of his two-day visit starting Monday as part of the events for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. "Closeness does all of us good. Distance, on the other hand, makes us bitter. "When we are distant, we close within ourselves and we become individual entities, incapable of encountering each other.
"We are held back by fears. We need to learn to transcend ourselves to encounter others. "If we do not do this, we Christians, too, become sick because of our divisions. My expectation is that of being able to take a step of closeness".
When asked by the Italian Jesuit journal for final reflections on the trip he replied: "what comes spontaneously for me to add now is simply: go, walk together. "Don't remain closed in rigid perspectives, because in these there is no possibility of reform".
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