With iPhone, Catholic Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals
By The Associated Press
Published: Friday, March 28, 2014, 6:03 p.m.
Updated 10 hours ago
The video, recorded on an iPhone, lasts less than eight minutes. The message is simple: We're brothers despite our differences.
Yet religious leaders say this informal greeting from Pope Francis has reset relations between the Roman Catholic Church and one of its fiercest competitors around the world, Pentecostals.
Recorded by a clergy friend Francis had invited to Rome, the message was directed to the spirit-filled Christians whose popular movements have for decades been draining parishioners from the Catholic Church, especially in Latin America.
Catholics often compared Pentecostal groups with cults and accused them of overly aggressive, unethical proselytizing. Francis, saying he was speaking from the heart, said in the video made in January that he yearned for an end to their separation and invited them to pray with him for unity.
http://triblive.com/aande/moreaande/5851205-74/francis-pentecostals-catholic#axzz2xM42VE9G
