Jesus tells three parables which I can think of, off the top of my head. There may be more.
The third is the parable of the "Prodigal Son". In this parable, the wayward son must first return home and beg forgiveness of his father before he can be embraced. His father, no doubt, longs for his return but until the son says, "I have sinned....." and vows to return home and seek his father's mercy, his father can do nothing.
This highlights a critical point with which the Pope often plays fast and loose; the Church does not exclude us, we exclude ourselves. It is by our own decisions and actions that we are excluded. Just as the son voluntarily left his father's house for a life of debauchery, so we, too, turn our backs on God.
The Pope sometimes seems to hint or imply that all those who are estranged from the Church are the victims of Pharisaical judgmentalists who've shut the door in their faces. That is certainly not my experience of the Church as I have spent my life grievously assaulting the ears of confessors old and young in the sacrament of Reconciliation. Never have I been turned away by a "Pharisee" priest.
Where are.....who are these "Pharisees" of which he speaks? I've never seen them.
I want to tell you something. In the Gospel there's that beautiful passage that tells us of the shepherd who, on returning to the sheepfold and realizing that a sheep is missing, leaves the 99 and goes to look for it, to look for the one. But, brothers and sisters, we have one. It's the 99 who we're missing! We have to go out, we must go to them! In this culture - let's face it - we only have one.
"In this culture", Francis appears to takesdelight in wallowing in sheep dung until he smells like them.
Is Francis a universalist?