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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ella Creamer

Pope Francis says future priests should read poetry and fiction

‘Imaginative empathy’ … Pope Francis.
‘Imaginative empathy’ … Pope Francis. Photograph: Vatican Media Handout/EPA

Pope Francis has said that reading novels and poems is valuable in “one’s path to personal maturity” and should be encouraged in the training of future priests.

Novelists CS Lewis and Marcel Proust as well as poets TS Eliot and Paul Celan were quoted by the head of the Catholic church in a letter written on 17 July and published in eight languages on Sunday.

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