Pope on irregular couples: “God bless everyone, everyone, everyone”

Salvatore Cernuzio – Vatican City

Blessings for everyone, even for “irregular” couples, imitating the God who is “good” and does not “punish” and “blesses everyone, everyone, everyone”; the “fear” of escalating war and humanity’s potential for “self-destruction”; Confirmation that he had no intention of resigning and the announcement of two trips: to Polynesia in August, and to his native Argentina at the end of the year. These are some of the topics Pope Francis discussed in an interview with journalist Fabio Fazio for the Italian program “Che tempo che fa”Italian television channel broadcast november This afternoon, January 14th. Already in 2021, Francisco gave an interview to the same popular program (broadcast on Rai at the time); A new conversation of less than an hour today, to consider topics related to current events, world challenges, the Church and the Pope.

Blessings for “Everybody, Everybody, Everybody”

The Pope responded to a question about the Dicastery’s document for the Doctrine of the Faith, fiducia supplier, which opens the possibility of blessing couples in “irregular” situations with respect to Catholic morality, including gay couples. Document that has left a record of diverse, even contradictory, reactions. Francisco admits that “sometimes decisions are not accepted” but that sometimes “it happens because we don’t know”; He then reaffirms the principle of “everyone, everyone, everyone” already expressed during the WYD in Lisbon: “The Lord blesses everyone, everyone, everyone, whoever comes. Let’s give. The Lord blesses all who are able to be baptized, that is, every person. But then people must enter into dialogue with the blessing of the Lord and see what path the Lord proposes to them. But We should hold their hand and help them walk on that path, not condemn them from the beginning.”

Those who confess forgive everything

This is the “pastoral work of the Church” and it is the “very important” work of the faithful, to whom Francis reiterates the invitation to “forgive everything” and treat people “with great kindness.” He himself explains, having refused forgiveness only once in 54 years of priesthood “because of the person’s hypocrisy”: “I have always forgiven everything, but I will also say this with the awareness that the person may make a mistake again. Can, but God forgives us, He helps us not to forget again, or repeat less, but He always forgives.

Pope Francis affirmed, saying, “God is not ashamed of our sins, for he is Father and with us.” They believe that they like to wait for hell to empty.

threat of wars

Once again, as in these 100 days of conflict in the Middle East and these nearly two years of aggression against Ukraine, the Pope stigmatized the horrors of war: “It is true that making peace is risky, but war is more It’s risky”. And he talks about a meeting he held last Wednesday with a delegation of Ukrainian children: “Not one of them smiled. Children smile spontaneously, I gave them chocolate and they did not smile. He had forgotten his smile and it is a crime for a child to forget his smile. It creates war: it stops you from dreaming.”

The Bishop of Rome insists, “Behind the wars is the arms trade.” An economist told me that, at the moment, the investments that generate the most interest, the most money, are arms factories. Invest to kill.

fear of war escalating

Then, the Bishop of Rome confessed a personal fear: “This escalation of war scares me, because this fact of taking warlike steps in the world makes one wonder how we will end up. Now with nuclear weapons, which destroy everything. How will we end? Like Noah’s Ark? it scared me. “Humanity today has the capacity for self-destruction.”

so much cruelty towards migrants

The interview also makes room for a topic that is very dear to the Pontiff, that of immigrants, including the memory of him embracing young Pato from Cameroon, who lost his wife and his 6-year-old daughter last year Was. From hunger, heat and thirst in the desert between Tunisia and Libya. Francisco welcomed him at Santa Marta in November. Recalling the dramatic situation of many people in Libyan concentration camps and the tragedy that occurred in Katro in February 2022, he says, “When these immigrants leave their homes and come to Europe they are treated with great cruelty.” coast. From Calabria. “It is true that everyone has the right to live in their own home and to migrate, but please do not close the doors,” the Pope says. There is a need for a “well-thought-out” immigration policy that would help “take the immigrant problem into our own hands” and “dismantle all these mafias exploiting immigrants.”

Improvement

Focusing on the Church, the Pontiff talks about reforms. The first thing that must be implemented is the “reformation of hearts”, then we move on to structures that must be “preserved, modified, improved according to purpose.” But the first thing that needs to be done is to “change the heart” and cleanse it of malice and jealousy, “the yellow evil that ruins all relationships.”

No to resignation, yes to trips to Polynesia and Argentina

Finally, there is a question about his possible resignation from the Holy See: “It is neither a thought, nor a concern, nor a desire. It is a possibility, open to all popes, but at the moment it is not at the center of my thoughts, my concerns, my feelings.” To confirm these words, Francis referred to two trips planned as envisaged in previous interviews. Announced: Polynesia and Argentina. In Argentina – where he was officially invited with a letter from the new President Javier Meili – the pontiff may go at the end of the year: “The people there are suffering a lot. This is a difficult time for the country. There is a possibility take a trip in the second half of the year, because now the government has changed, there are new things… In August I have to travel to the far end of Polynesia, and after that I will travel. Travel to Argentina if it can be done “I want to go there. Ten years is fine, that’s fine, I can go.”