Church neither multinational nor NGO - Pope

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 4 - The Catholic Church is neither a multinational nor an NGO, Pope Francis says in a new book of interviews published by Vatican publisher LEV.
    A Church which does not fulfill its duty of announcing Christ's message "would become a spiritual association," he told journalist Gianni Valente in the book, "Without Him We Can Do Nothing".
    It would be, Francis said, a "multinational to launch initiatives and messages of an ethical and religious nature.
    There's nothing wrong in that, but it's not the Church".
    The pope added: "and the Church is not an NGO either, it's something different".
    Francis returned to the theme of being an "outgoing Church".
    "It's not a fashionable expression that I invented," he said.
    "It's the commandment of Jesus and the Church is either outgoing or it is not the Church".
    Francis also told Valente that "casting formulae of doctrine like stones is not Christian".
    He also said that "martyrs are all winners, not losers".
    Also on Monday, the pope said that helping others "throws wide the gates of paradise." Receiving university groups he said that the university "should help the development not only of the mind but also of the heart".
    Francis was speaking to the International Federation of Catholic Universities.