Pope Francis has described secularisation as a “complex phenomenon” and how the Church must “confront forms of paganism” within it.

Last week, a report from the Iona Institute charted the massive rise in ‘New Age’ style weddings in Ireland as people ditch traditional church ceremonies in their droves.

Speaking in Rome to his Jesuit confreres, the Pope said that he didn’t mean a paganism like the one found in the ancient world: “We do not need a statue of a pagan god to talk about paganism,” the Pope said. “The very environment, the air we breathe is a gaseous pagan god! And we must preach to this culture in terms of witness, service and faith. And from within we must do it with prayer.”

“There is no need to think of very sophisticated things; think of St. Paul in Athens,” the Pope continued.