Pope: Church not immune from being too harsh, calls for more tenderness amid world's cruelty

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis says the world needs a "revolution of tenderness" amid all the news of cruelty and atrocities.

The pope also took his church to task in an interview published Wednesday in Credere, a Catholic magazine reporting on the Holy Year of Mercy, called for by Francis and starting next week.

Francis lamented that the church itself "falls into the temptation to take a hard line, the temptation to stress only the moral laws." He wondered "how many people are left outside" the church by that emphasis.

The pope says today needs a revolution of tenderness because, "from here, justice and all the rest derives."

He adds: "We are used to bad news, cruel news and to even bigger atrocities, which offend the name and life of God."