War, financial instability, moral decay, pandemics, climate change, poverty, rising crime, political partisanship, technological changes, a world inn conflict- we are living in strange and turbulent times.

A more benign time where there seemed to be hope for humankind now seems distant as we enter a darker more malevolent epoch.

Holding mass to commemorate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Vatican, Pope Francis said the world was entering a dire time and the omens he has seen do not look good.  His visions revealed life will become more bleak for humanity.

“It is a bitter time, filled with the rumbling of war, growing injustice, famine, poverty and suffering but at this bleak and disconcerting time, there are omens of even greater destruction and desolation.”

But despite the Pope’s homily and forbidding visions, there are those who say the Catholic Church has been complicit, plagued by sexual and financial scandals and woefully out of touch with the modern world.

Pope Francis has called for people to use digital and social media responsibly, even reprimanding priests and nuns for watching porn.

“Porn on the internet is a vice that so many people have…even priests and nuns. The devil enters from there…It weakens the priestly heart.”

“Dear brothers, pay attention to this and if you can delete this from your mobile phone delete it, so you won’t have the temptation in hand,” said the 85-year-old-pontiff last month.

Turning his attention to the growing polarisation in the world, Pope Francis had this to say: “Polarisation is not Catholic. Catholics cannot think either or and reduce everything to polarisation. The essence of what is Catholic is both. The Catholic unites the good and the not-so-good. There is only one people of God. Where there is polarisation, a divisive mentality arises, which privileges some and leaves others behind. The Catholic always harmonises differences.”

Presiding over The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe mass, Pope Francis declared: “God never stops watching over our world -needy and wounded – to assist with his compassion and mercy. His way of manifesting Himself always surprises us and fills us with joy.

“In Jesus born of Mary, the Eternal One enters the precariousness of our time, becomes forever and irreversibly ‘God-with-us,’ and walks besides us as brother and companion.”

Pope Francis was ordained as a priest 53 years ago today (December 13).