[ 2013-09-20 ]

Pope Francis

Pope Francis: 'I am a sinner'
Pope Francis has set out his desire to find a "new
balance" in the Catholic church, calling for
greater involvement of women in key decisions and
a less condemnatory approach towards gay people,
divorcees and women who have had an abortion.

In a wide-ranging interview with an Italian Jesuit
journal, the Pope calls for the Catholic church,
the world's largest Christian church with 1.2bn
members, to face up to the need for reform.
Offering a dramatic contrast to the traditional
conservative approach of his predecessor, Benedict
XVI, Francis says the first reform must be one of
"attitude", adding that unless a new balance is
found, "the moral edifice of the church is likely
to fall like a house of cards".

The Pope urges Catholics to show "audacity and
courage" in their approach to people who, in the
past, have been given short shrift by the church,
including those who "do not attend mass, who have
quit or are indifferent".

Asked how he would respond to Catholics who are
divorced or remarried or gay, he replies: "I used
to receive letters from homosexual persons who are
'socially wounded', because they tell me that they
feel like the church has always condemned them.
But the church does not want to do this."

He goes on: "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?' We must always
consider the person … In life, God accompanies
persons, and we must accompany them, starting from
their situation."

Upon his election in March, Pope Francis, or Jorge
Mario Bergoglio as he was born in Buenos Aires to
Italian parents, was presented as a new start for
a church still reeling from paedophilia scandals
as well as the Hitler Youth past that dogged his
predecessor. But the extent of the shift that
Francis represents is only now becoming apparent.

"I have never been a rightwinger," the Pope says,
admitting that when he was a younger man he had
"an authoritarian and quick manner of making
decisions" that led to "serious problems".

"Over time I learned many things."

The interview was conducted by Antonio Spadaro,
editor of La Civilta Cattolica, an Italian Jesuit
journal. He met the Pope three times in August,
and his article, which was translated from Italian
into English by a team of five independent
experts, has been published in 16 countries.

Spadaro was treated to a rare audience inside the
Pope's private living quarters in the Casa Santa
Marta in the Vatican. The Pope has chosen to live
in Room 207 in the Casa, rather than in the papal
apartment in the Apostolic Palace, because he
disliked the inverted funnel of the space: "It is
big and spacious, but the entrance is really
tight. People can come only in dribs and drabs,
and I cannot live without people."

His living space is spartan and austere, with only
a few things in it, including an icon of St
Francis, a statue of the patron saint of his
native Argentina, a crucifix and a statue of St
Joseph asleep.

Asked by Spadaro the simple question: "Who is
Jorge Mario Bergoglio?", the new pontiff says: "I
am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition.
It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I
am a sinner."

Pope Francis does not offer any concrete changes
of policy such as a willingness to see women enter
the clergy or a loosening of the church's tough
approach to contraception. But he does signal a
radical change of approach from which solid
reforms might follow.

On women, he begins by saying, quizzically, that
he is wary of what he calls "female machismo",
because "women have a different make-up from men".
But he then goes on to say that he wants to
"investigate further the role of women in the
church … The feminine genius is needed wherever
we make important decisions."

He raises the example of a woman with a failed
marriage behind her who has had an abortion. She
remarries, has five children, and is happy. "That
abortion in her past weighs heavily on her
conscience and she sincerely regrets it. She would
like to move forward in her Christian life … We
cannot insist only on issues related to abortion,
gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.
This is not possible … We have to talk about
them in a context."

On gay Catholics, he adds flesh to the remarks he
made in July when he said he would not judge a gay
person seeking God. In the latest interview, the
Pope adds that "God in creation has set us free:
it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the
life of a person."

In the course of the 11,000-word interview, the
Pope also gives an insight into his personal
tastes. He likes reading Dostoevsky and the German
lyric poet Friedrich Holderlin, and has Alessandro
Manzoni's historical novel The Betrothed, which he
has already read three times, by his bed.

He admires the paintings of Caravaggio and
Chagall, and adores listening to Mozart and
Beethoven interpreted by the German conductor
Wilhelm Furtwangler. His favourite films are La
Strada by Fellini and Roberto Rossellini's wartime
drama Rome, Open City.

Source - The Guardian

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