Rome, Italy
Reuters
Pope Francis on Sunday defended a landmark decision approving blessings for same-sex couples, suggesting that those in the Catholic Church who have resisted it have jumped to “ugly conclusions” because they do not understand it.
In a television interview, Francis made his first public comments since the 18th December declaration sparked widespread debate in the church, with bishops in some countries, particularly in Africa, refusing to let their priests implement it.
Pope Francis holds a weekly general audience at the Vatican, on 10th January, 2024. PICTURE: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
POPE SAYS HE HOPES TO VISIT “SUFFERING” ARGENTINA THIS YEAR
Pope Francis said on Sunday that the people of Argentina are suffering and that he hopes to be able make his first trip back to his homeland in the second half of this year.
On Thursday, Argentine President Javier Milei’s office said he had invited the 87-year-old Francis to visit, appearing to extend an olive branch after attacking the Catholic leader in recent years.
“Yes I am worried because the people are suffering a lot. It is a difficult moment for the country,” he said in response to a question about Argentina during an interview on an Italian television programme on Sunday night.
Argentina is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and Milei has said there was no alternative to a sharp and painful fiscal shock to remedy the situation.
After taking office in December, Milei, who once called the pope an “imbecile,” unveiled a slew of economic measures meant to pull Argentina out of triple-digit inflation, rising poverty and a shortage of reserves.
“There is a possibility of making a trip in the second part of the year. There has been a change of government, there are some new things,” Francis said.
He said an eventual trip to Argentina would take place after August, when he is planning to visit some countries in Polynesia.
“After that, the trip to Argentina, if it can be done, but I would like to go. It’s been 10 years. I think I can go,” he said in a video link from his Vatican residence with Italy’s popular Channel 9 programme Che Tempo Che Fa.
Before he decided to run for president, Milei, a former TV “shock jock” commentator, made a series of attacks on the pope, calling him an “imbecile who defends social justice” and “the representative of the evil one on Earth”.
In September, priests from poor districts in Buenos Aires, the pope’s birthplace and where he also was archbishop, held a Mass to defend Francis and condemn Milei’s attacks on him.
Francis and Milei spoke on phone in November, after Milei’s election.
Francis has made more than 40 trips outside Italy, including many in Latin America, since his election nearly 11 years ago as the first Latin American pontiff but has yet to visit Argentina.
“Sometimes decisions are not accepted, but in most cases when decisions are not accepted, it is because they are not understood,” Francis said in response to a specific question about the December declaration.
“The danger is that if I don’t like something and I put it (the opposition) in my heart, I become a resistance and jump to ugly conclusions,” he said during a link from his Vatican residence with the Che Tempo Che Fa program on Italy’s Channel 9.
“This is what happened with these latest decisions on blessings for all,” he said, referring to the declaration known by its Latin title Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust). It was issued by the Vatican’s doctrinal department and approved by him.
Since the original declaration, the Vatican has been at pains to stress that the blessings did not amount to an approval of gay sex and should not be seen as anything remotely equivalent to the sacrament of marriage for heterosexual couples.
But even a clarification earlier this month from the Vatican’s doctrinal department did not sway bishops in Africa, where in some countries same-sex activity can lead to prison or even the death penalty.
They issued a letter last week saying the December declaration had caused “unrest in the minds of many” and could not be applied because of the continent’s cultural context.
Some bishops in France told their priests they could bless gay individuals but not couples.
The church teaches that gay sex is sinful and disordered and people with same-sex attractions should try to be chaste and the pope appeared to be alluding to this is his response.
“The Lord blesses everyone,” Francis said. “But then people have to enter into a dialogue with the blessing of the Lord and see the path that the Lord proposes. We [the church] have to take them by the hand and lead them along that path and not condemn them from the start”.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has tried to make the Church, with its 1.35 billion members, more welcoming to LGBT people, without changing moral doctrine.
Speaking at the Vatican on Sunday, the Pope said that war was “a crime against humanity” as he reiterated a call for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“Let us not forget this…People need peace, the world needs peace,” the Pope said after the weekly Angelus prayer.
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In the prayer, he urged people not to forget those suffering due to the “cruelty of war” in several parts of the world. He has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and in the war in Gaza.
“Let us pray that those who have power over these conflicts reflect on the fact that war is not the way to resolve them, as it sows death among civilians and destroys cities and infrastructure,” the Pope said.
Sunday marked 100 days since Hamas gunmen broke out of Gaza to launch the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, triggering an Israeli campaign to eliminate Hamas that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the Palestinian enclave.
– With GUILIO PIOVACCARI
