Pope Francis accused some leaders of the US Catholic Church of “backwardness,” saying they have abandoned Christian doctrines in favor of political ideologies.

“Doing this, you lose the true tradition and you turn to ideologies to have support. In other words, ideologies replace faith,” the pope said during a private meeting with a Jesuit order in Lisbon earlier in August.

The transcripts from that meeting were just made public Monday, revealing the 86-year-old pope’s unfiltered opinion about a rift growing between some US religious leaders and the Vatican over his initiatives to modernize the Catholic Church.

Francis’ comments came after a Jesuit described encountering a number of Catholics and bishops who were critical of his papacy and the Vatican during a recent year-long stay in the US.

In response, the pope called the US church “backward,” and said it had “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” which he warned could lead to a climate of closure that would be the antithesis of Christian values.

“The vision of the doctrine of the church as a monolith is wrong,” he said.

“When you go backward, you make something closed off, disconnected from the roots of the church.”

“I want to remind these people that backwardness is useless, and they must understand that there’s a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals” he said allowed for progress.

The pontiff has been outspoken about adapting traditional church principles to more modern values during his ten years as pope — much to the chagrin of more conservative leaders in the US.

He has voiced belief that same-sex unions should not be criminalized, has pushed the public and world leaders to urgently address climate change, advocated for divorce under certain circumstances, and looked at lifting celibacy for priests.

The pope has previously called it an “honor” to be criticized by religious leaders in the US.