Traditionally, the head of the Roman Catholic Church uses his pulpit to speak out against calamities such as war and hunger. But Pope Francis has taken aim at a less conspicuous enemy of humanity: The dreaded adjective.

In a speech to the Vatican communications team, Francis lectured about the sinful overuse of adjectives, stating that he is “allergic” to them.

“We have fallen into the culture of adjectives and adverbs, and we have forgotten the strength of nouns… Why say authentically Christian? It is Christian!” he opined, while acknowledging that the word ‘Christian’ often acts as an adjective.

He called on the Vatican’s PR gurus to “communicate with reality, without sweetening with adjectives or adverbs,” explaining that “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”

Let us learn to call people by their name, as the Lord does with us, and to give up using adjectives. — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) September 24, 2019

The group, which runs the Pope’s social media accounts, later published a tweet urging Christians to abandon the temptation of using adjectives.



The unorthodox sermonizing received mixed reviews on Twitter, with some applauding the directive as long overdue, while others expressed confusion over why the Pontiff was bothering with such matters.

Great idea! No more identity politics!! — Billy Hauber (@HauberBilly) September 24, 2019

Cool, so no such thing as Christian or Catholic. Got it. — devil_in_the_details (@dev_deets) September 24, 2019

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