stumping and pleasantly surprising critics and supporters, alike.
Thursday was no exception, as the words he uttered in a recent interview
about a variety of subjects, including homosexuality, abortion and the
future of the church, raised some eyebrows.
At the center of the pontiff’s words was a central warning: That the
Catholic Church’s moral edifice might “fall like a house of cards” if it
doesn’t balance its divisive rules about abortion, gays and
contraception with the greater need to make the church a merciful, more
welcoming place for all.
Francis blesses the faithful at the end of his weekly general audience
in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP)
and his priorities as pope in a remarkably candid and lengthy interview
with La Civilta Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit magazine. It was
published simultaneously Thursday in other Jesuit journals, including
America magazine in the U.S.
Francis on Gays and Lesbians
In the 12,000-word article, Francis expands on his ground-breakingcomments over the summer about gays and acknowledges some of his own
faults. As TheBlaze reported back in July, the pontiff said, “If someone
is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to
judge?”
This instantaneously made headlines. At the time, The Wall Street Journal noted the significance of the comments:
Fielding questions from reporters during the first news conference ofFrancis noted in the latest interview that he had merely repeated
his young papacy, the pontiff broached the delicate question of how he
would respond to learning that a cleric in his ranks was gay, though not
sexually active. For decades, the Vatican has regarded homosexuality as
a “disorder,” and Pope Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI formally barred men with what the Vatican deemed “deep-seated” homosexuality from entering the priesthood. [...]
Never before had a pope spoken out in defense of gay priests in the
Catholic ministry, said Vatican analysts. Past popes have traditionally
treated homosexuality as an obstacle to priestly celibacy, and the
Vatican has sent extensive instructions to Catholic seminaries on how to
restrict gay candidates from the priesthood.
church teaching when asked about gay marriage earlier this summer
(though he again neglected to repeat church teaching that says while
homosexuals should be treated with dignity and respect, homosexual acts
are “intrinsically disordered.”)
But he continued: “A person once asked me, in a provocative manner,
if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell
me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of
this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’
persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It
is necessary to accompany them with mercy. When that happens, the Holy
Spirit inspires the priest to say the right thing.”
The key, he said, is for the church to welcome, not exclude and show mercy, not condemnation.
“This church with which we should be thinking is the home of all, not
a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people. We
must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting
our mediocrity,” he said.
The Future of the Catholic Church
In this most recent interview in La Civilta Cattolica, Francis alsosheds light on his favorite composers, artists, authors and films
(Mozart, Caravaggio, Dostoevsky and Fellini’s “La Strada”) and says he
prays even while at the dentist’s office.
But his vision of what the church should be stands out, primarily
because it contrasts so sharply with many of the priorities of his
immediate predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI. They were both
intellectuals for whom doctrine was paramount, an orientation that
guided the selection of generations of bishops and cardinals around the
globe.
Francis said the dogmatic and the moral teachings of the church were not all equivalent.
“The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the
transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed
insistently,” Francis said. “We have to find a new balance; otherwise
even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of
cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel” (this mention
of the word “fragrance” is ironic, considering that the pontiff now has a cologne modeled after him).
Rather, he said, the Catholic Church must be like a “field hospital
after battle,” healing the wounds of its faithful and going out to find
those who have been hurt, excluded or have fallen away.
Francis waves to faithful as he arrives for his weekly general audience
in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP)
cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars!” Francis said. “You
have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
“The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in
small-minded rules,” he lamented. “The most important thing is the first
proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the
church must be ministers of mercy above all.”
How Social Conservatives Might React
The admonition is likely to have sharp reverberations in the UnitedStates, where some bishops have already publicly voiced dismay that
Francis hasn’t hammered home church teaching on abortion, contraception
and homosexuality — areas of the culture wars where U.S. bishops often
put themselves on the front lines. U.S. bishops were also behind
Benedict’s crackdown on American nuns, who were accused of letting
doctrine take a backseat to their social justice work caring for the
poor — precisely the priority that Francis is endorsing.
Just last week, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island,
wrote in his diocesan newspaper that he was “a little bit disappointed”
that Francis hadn’t addressed abortion since being elected.
Francis acknowledged that he had been “reprimanded” for not speaking out on such issues. But he said he didn’t need to.
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage
and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible,” he said.
“The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of
the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the
time.”
Francis delivers a speech to the faithful gathered in Aula Paolo VI at
the Vatican during his private audience to members of the Knights of the
Holy Sepulchre, on Sept. 13, 2013. (Getty Images)
Cattolica’s editor, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, over three days in August
at the Vatican hotel where Francis chose to live rather than the papal
apartments. The Vatican vets all content of the journal, and the pope
approved the Italian version of the article.
Nothing Francis said in this or other interviews indicate any change
in church teaching. But he has set a different tone and signaled new
priorities compared to Benedict and John Paul — priorities that have
already been visible in his simple style, his outreach to the most
marginalized and his insistence that priests be pastors, not
bureaucrats.
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