“Worldliness deforms the soul, it stifles the conscience of reality: a worldly person lives in an artificial, self-built world. It is like s/he is surrounded by dark tinted glasses that prevent him/her from seeing outside”. Pope Francis said this in his address to the members of the German Bishops’ Conference on their ad limina visit to the Vatican, who were received in audience today. Pope Francis referred to the “current imperative” of “pastoral conversion”, that is to say, “making the ‘Church’s structures more missionary and all current forms of pastoral care more open and outreaching’”. “We always inaugurate new facilities, but in the end, there are no faithful for them”, he observed. “It is a sort of new Pelagianism, which leads us to put our trust in administrative structures, in perfect organisations. Excessive centralisation, however, complicates the life of the Church and her missionary dynamism rather than helping”. “The Church – he stated – is not a closed system always revolving around the same questions. The Church is alive. She is present in the daily lives of men and women, raising questions and sustaining them. Her face is not rigid, she has a body that moves, grows and feels – her body is the Body of Christ”.