B NDINGS Vol. 33, No. 3 A Publication of New Ways Ministry Fall 2013 Pope says Church ‘obsessed’ with gays, abortion & birth control By Laurie Goodstein editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, an ings have to be presented in a larger con- Youth Day. In a remark then that pro- The New York Times Italian Jesuit journal whose content is text. duced headlines worldwide, the new September 19, 2013 approved by the Vatican. Francis, the “I see the church as a field hospital pope said, “Who am I to judge?” At the first Jesuit to become a pope, agreed to after battle,” Francis said. “It is useless to time, some questioned whether he was Six months into his papacy, Pope grant the interview after requests from ask a seriously injured person if he has referring only to gays in the priesthood, Francis sent shock waves through the Father Spadaro and the editors of Ameri- high cholesterol and about the level of but in this interview he made clear that Roman Catholic church on Thursday ca, a Jesuit magazine based in New York. his blood sugars. You have to heal his he had been speaking of gay men and with the publication of his remarks that Father Spadaro conducted the inter- wounds. Then we can talk about every- lesbians in general. the church had grown “obsessed” with view during three meetings in August in thing else.” “A person once asked me, in a pro- abortion, gay marriage and contracep- the pope’s spartan quarters in Casa Santa From the outset of his papacy in vocative manner, if I approved of homo- tion, and that he had chosen not to talk Marta, the Vatican guesthouse, where March, Francis, who is 76, has chosen to sexuality,” he told Father Spadaro. “I about those issues despite recriminations Francis said he had chosen to live be- use the global spotlight to focus on the replied with another question: ‘Tell me: from critics. cause it is less isolated than the papal church’s mandate to serve the poor and when God looks at a gay person, does he His surprising comments came in a apartment in the Apostolic Palace. “I oppressed. He has washed the feet of endorse the existence of this person with lengthy interview in which he criticized love, or reject and condemn this person?’ the church for putting dogma before We must always consider the person.” love, and for prioritizing moral doctrines The interview also serves to present over serving the poor and marginalized. the pope as a human being, who loves He articulated his vision of an inclusive Mozart and Dostoyevsky and his grand- church, a “home for all” — which is a mother, and whose favorite film striking contrast with his predecessor, is Fellini’s “La Strada.” Pope Benedict XVI, the doctrinal de- Francis said some had assumed he fender who envisioned a smaller, purer was an “ultraconservative” because of church. his reputation when he served as the su- Francis told the interviewer, a fellow perior of his Jesuit province in Argenti- Jesuit: “It is not necessary to talk about na. He said that he was made superior at these issues all the time. The dogmatic the “crazy” young age of 36, and that his and moral teachings of the church are not leadership style was too authoritarian. all equivalent. The church’s pastoral “But I have never been a right- ministry cannot be obsessed with the winger,” he said. “It was my authoritari- transmission of a disjointed multitude of an way of making decisions that created doctrines to be imposed insistently. problems.” “We have to find a new balance,” Now, Francis said, he prefers a more the pope continued, “otherwise even the consultative leadership style. He has ap- moral edifice of the church is likely to pointed an advisory group of eight cardi- fall like a house of cards, losing the nals, a step he said was recommended by freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.” the cardinals at the conclave that elected The pope’s interview did not change him. They were demanding reform of the church doctrine or policies, but it instant- Pope Francis Vatican bureaucracy, he said, adding that ly changed its tone. His words evoked from the eight, “I want to see that this is gratitude and hope from many liberal a real, not ceremonial, consultation.” Catholics who had felt left out in the cold cannot live without people,” Francis told juvenile prisoners, visited a center for The pope said he has found it during the papacies of Benedict and his Father Spadaro. refugees and hugged disabled pilgrims at “amazing” to see complaints about “lack predecessor, John Paul II, which together The interview, kept under wraps for his audiences. His pastoral presence and of orthodoxy” flowing into the Vatican lasted 35 years. Some lapsed Catholics weeks by the Jesuits, was released simul- humble gestures have made him wildly offices in Rome from conservative Cath- suggested on social media a return to the taneously on Thursday morning by 16 popular among American Catholics, ac- olics around the world. They ask the Vat- church, and leaders of gay rights and gay Jesuit journals around the world. Francis cording to a recent Pew survey. ican to investigate or discipline their Catholic groups called on bishops to personally reviewed the Italian transcript, But there has been a low rumble of priests, bishops or nuns. Such com- abandon their fight against gay marriage. and it was translated by a team into Eng- discontent from some Catholic advocacy plaints, he said, “are better dealt with But it left conservative and tradition- lish, said the Rev. James Martin, an edi- groups, and even from some bishops, locally,” or else the Vatican offices risk alist Catholics, and those who have de- tor at large of America. who have taken note of his silence on becoming “institutions of censorship.” voted themselves to the struggles against “We have a great pope,” said Father abortion and gay marriage. This month, Asked what it means for him to abortion, gay marriage and artificial con- Spadaro in a phone interview from his Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, “think with the church,” a phrase used by traception, on the defensive, though office, surrounded by Italian journalists. R.I., told his diocesan newspaper that he the Jesuit founder St. Ignatius, Francis some cast it as nothing new. “There is a big vision, not a big shift. His was “a little bit disappointed in Pope said that it did not mean “thinking with “Nobody should try to use the words big vision is to see the church in the mid- Francis” because he had not spoken the hierarchy of the church.” of the pope to minimize the urgent need dle of the persons who need to be healed. about abortion. “Many people have no- “This church with which we should to preach and teach about abortion,” said It is in the middle of the world.” ticed that,” he said. be thinking is the home of all, not a small the Rev. Frank Pavone, national director The pope’s words are likely to have The interview is the first time Fran- chapel that can hold only a small group of Priests for Life, who said he spoke repercussions in a church whose bishops cis has explained the reasoning behind of selected people,” he said. “We must Thursday about the “priority of the abor- and priests in many countries, including both his actions and omissions. He also not reduce the bosom of the universal tion issue” at a Vatican conference. the United States, have often seemed to expanded on the comments he made church to a nest protecting our mediocri- The interview with Francis was con- make combating abortion, gay marriage about homosexuality in July, on an air- ty.” ducted by the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, and contraception their top public policy plane returning to Rome from Rio de priorities. Francis said that those teach- Janeiro, where he had celebrated World On gay priests, Pope Francis asks, ‘Who am I to judge?’ By Rachel Donadio to judge?” Francis told reporters, speak- “It’s not a great opening in terms of proach doctrine. While Benedict, the shy The New York Times ing in Italian but using the English word contents, but the fact that he talked about theologian, focused more on ethics and July 29, 2013 “gay.” it that way is a great novelty,” said Paolo advocated a purer church, even if it Francis’s words could not have been Rodari, a Vatican expert at the Italian might end up being smaller, Francis was ROME — For generations, homo- more different from those of Benedict daily La Repubblica. Francis would elected for his belief that the Catholic sexuality has largely been a taboo topic XVI, who in 2005 wrote that homosexu- probably agree with Benedict’s writings Church must engage in dialogue with the for the Vatican, ignored altogether or ality was “a strong tendency ordered on homosexuality, he added, “but it world — even with those it disagrees treated as “an intrinsic moral evil,” in the toward an intrinsic moral evil,” and an doesn’t interest him.” with — if it wants to stay vibrant and words of the previous pope. “objective disorder.” The church docu- “It interests him to say that the prob- relevant. In that context, brief remarks by ment said men with “deep-seated homo- lem in the end isn’t if someone has this “At a certain point, tone becomes Pope Francis suggesting that he would sexual tendencies” should not become tendency, the important thing is to live in substance if it’s seen as revitalizing the not judge priests for their sexual orienta- priests.