{"id":21371,"date":"2013-09-19T10:12:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T16:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=21371"},"modified":"2013-09-20T13:53:10","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T19:53:10","slug":"interview-with-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2013\/09\/19\/interview-with-pope-francis\/","title":{"rendered":"Startling Interview with Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview published this morning jointly by sixteen Jesuit magazines around the world, Pope Francis has spoken clearly — and in a way that is sure to be influential and widely discussed — about Vatican II, the Church’s presentation of moral issues, the dignity of gays and lesbians, and the dangers of traditionalism. The following quotes are taken from the report which has just appeared on the front page of the New York Times.<\/p>\n

On Vatican II and the People of God<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked what it means for him to \u201cthink with the church,\u201d a phrase used by the Jesuit founder St. Ignatius, Francis said that it did not mean \u201cthinking with the hierarchy of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he thinks of the church \u201cas the people of God, pastors and people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church is the totality of God\u2019s people,\u201d he added, a notion popularized after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which Francis praised for making the Gospel relevant to modern life, an approach he called \u201cabsolutely irreversible.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the Church’s Presentation of Moral Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, said that the Roman Catholic church had grown \u201cobsessed\u201d with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he has chosen not to speak of those issues despite recriminations from some critics.<\/p>\n

In remarkably blunt language, Francis sought to set a new tone for the church, saying it should be a \u201chome for all\u201d and not a \u201csmall chapel\u201d focused on doctrine, orthodoxy and a limited agenda of moral teachings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the Dignity of Gays and Lesbians<\/strong><\/p>\n

The interview is the first time Francis has explained the reasoning behind both his actions and omissions. He also expanded on the comments he made about homosexuality in July, on an airplane returning to Rome from Rio de Janeiro, where he had celebrated World Youth Day. In a remark then that produced headlines worldwide, the new pope said, \u201cWho am I to judge?<\/a>\u201d At the time, some questioned whether he was referring only to gays in the priesthood, but in this interview he made clear that he had been speaking of gays and lesbians in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,\u201d he told Father Spadaro. \u201cI replied with another question: \u2018Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?\u2019 We must always consider the person.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the Dangers Associated with Traditionalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

And while he agreed with the decision of his predecessor, Pope Benedict, to allow the broader use of the traditional Latin-language Tridentine Mass, he said that the more traditional Mass risked becoming an ideology and that he was worried about its \u201cexploitation.\u201d Those who seek a broad revival of the Tridentine Mass have been among Francis\u2019s harshest critics, and those remarks are not likely to comfort them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read the whole thing here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe have to find a new balance,\u201d the pope continued, \u201cotherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1081,285,2224],"tags":[253,2543,2541,2542,2540,3010,3021,360,3012],"class_list":["post-21371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-reform","category-pastoral-theology","category-pope-francis","tag-america-magazine","tag-dignity-of-gays-and-lesbians","tag-jesuit","tag-morality","tag-people-of-god","tag-pope-benedict-xvi","tag-pope-francis","tag-traditionalism","tag-vatican-ii"],"yoast_head":"\nStartling Interview with Pope Francis - 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