The Pope Francis Thread

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Source: Crux
Link: cruxnow DOT com/vatican/2024/01/pope-in-new-interview-talks-health-resignation-future-travel-plans
Pope in new interview talks health, resignation, future travel plans

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ROME — In a new interview, Pope Francis said he is in good health and denied any plans to resign, saying he has several foreign trips planned for this year, including a summer stop in Polynesia and a potential return trip to Argentina.

Speaking of his health, Francis in the interview jested that “I’m still alive” despite several health challenges last year, including two hospital stays and a recent bout of bronchitis that forced him to cancel a planned trip to Dubai in early December for the COP28 United Nations climate summit.

Asked whether he was considering resignation, the pope said, “it’s neither a thought nor a concern nor even a desire.”

“It’s a possibility open to all popes, but for the moment, it’s not at the center of my thoughts, worries and feelings,” he said, adding, “as long as I have the ability to serve, I go forward; when I can’t take it anymore, it will be time to think about it.”

Pope Francis spoke to Italian journalist Fabio Fazio on the popular television program, Che Tempo Che Fa, which was broadcast Sunday night. It was his second appearance on the program since his election in 2013.

In the roughly 50-minute interview, Francis touched on a variety of issues in addition to his health, including war, migration, future travel plans, and the recent controversy over his decision to allow non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples.

[…]

The pope also touched on the recent controversy caused by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Declaration “Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” published Dec. 18 and which authorizes pastors to give spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to couples in irregular situations, including divorced and remarried couples and those in same-sex unions.

[…]

In his interview, Pope Francis said that at times, “decisions are not accepted,” and that people don’t really understand what they are criticizing.

“The danger, the thing I don’t like, is to arrive at ugly conclusions,” he said, referring to accusations of heresy, instead of “talking, expressing doubts, and carrying forward a fraternal discussion.”

He said this is what happened with Fiducia Supplicans, and insisted as he often has that “the Lord blesses everyone, everyone, everyone, those who come. Every person.”

“Then people must see what path the Lord proposes to them, but we must take them by the hand and help them go down that path, not condemn them from the beginning. This is the pastoral action of the Church,” he said.

Francis insisted on the need to be generous in forgiving, telling confessors in particular to “forgive everything,” and that “in 54 years as a priest, only once have I denied forgiveness, due to the hypocrisy of the person.”

If God punishes, he said, it is “to correct, out of love.”

[…]

Pope Francis also touched on the issue of war, specifically citing the ongoing wars in Gaza and in Ukraine, saying he is afraid of further escalation of all global conflicts.

“How will it end? Like Noah’s Ark? This scares me, the capacity for self-destruction that humanity has today,” he said, and again condemned the global arms trade.

In reference to Ukraine, he lamented that there are many children “who don’t smile,” saying that “for a child to forget their smile is criminal, this makes war.” He also pointed to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, saying the two people, “called to be brothers, destroy one another.”

On the issue of migration, he condemned the “cruelty” with which they are treated and noted that there is a “mafia that takes them and exploits them” along their journey.

He recalled a recent case in which traffickers had tortured a migrant and asked for a large sum of money in exchange for the person’s freedom, saying, “Thanks be to God we found a benefactor and he was freed.”

“Everyone has the right to remain home and to migrate,” he said, noting that the countries of Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Italy and Spain bear the brunt of the migrant crisis, and pleaded with these nations to, “Please, don’t close borders.”

Pope Francis noted that some of these countries “don’t have children, they need a workforce. Some of these countries have empty villages,” and advocated for a balanced European migration policy that is fair to all sides.

“We must take the issue of migration in hand, take out all of these mafias that exploit migrants and go forward in resolving problems both of the people in the country and of migration,” he said, saying, “To migrate is a right, and to stay in one’s homeland is also a right. Both must be respected.”

Francis also explained his frequent appeals for prayer, saying he makes the request because “I am a sinner and I need God’s help to stay faithful to the vocation he gave me.”

“Each person has their own vocation that they must carry forward,” he said, saying that he as a bishop has “a very big responsibility toward the church. I know my weaknesses and because of this I must ask for prayer, that everyone prays for me, so that I remain faithful in the work of the Lord and that I don’t end up in the attitude of a mediocre pastor.”

A pastor must be with his people and know their needs, he said, and asked viewers again to pray for him, “that I always go forward, that I do not fail in my duty,” and jokingly added, “please, pray in favor, not against!”


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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Del »

I don't trust Francis to say anything relevant. And I certainly don't trust the secular media (including the politicized American Catholic media) to report on Francis if he does say something insightful or relevant.

Wake me up whenever Francis talks about Jesus, or Mary, or our Sacred Scripture, or anything regarding my Catholic faith. Send me a PM or something.
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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Jocose »

https://x.com/ProtecttheFaith/status/17 ... 47927?s=20

Last week Bergoglio praises the social focus of commies

This week Bergoglio praises the morality of WEF globalists

Next week Bergoglio praises Lucifer's rebellious streak

https://x.com/MLJHaynes/status/1747566390087659659?s=20

JUST IN: #PopeFrancis sends message to World Economic Forum's Klaus Schwab, praising the annual
@wef
Davos meeting currently taking place, & noting the "fundamentally moral dimension" involved in the "process of globalization."
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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Del »

Jocose wrote: 17 Jan 2024, 09:52 https://x.com/ProtecttheFaith/status/17 ... 47927?s=20

Last week Bergoglio praises the social focus of commies

This week Bergoglio praises the morality of WEF globalists

Next week Bergoglio praises Lucifer's rebellious streak

https://x.com/MLJHaynes/status/1747566390087659659?s=20

JUST IN: #PopeFrancis sends message to World Economic Forum's Klaus Schwab, praising the annual
@wef
Davos meeting currently taking place, & noting the "fundamentally moral dimension" involved in the "process of globalization."
Klaus Schwab and WEF have the same mission as Marxists. And the Catholic Christians too, I'm told. Something about concern for the welfare of the poor.

I'm not convinced that massive state and global bureaucracies and their "experts" have ever done anything to help the world's poor. I've never seen them in poor neighborhoods near me, where local Catholics operate food pantries and pregnancy care centers.

Government bureaucracies and Democrat activists try to shut down our charities. I've seen that.
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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Jocose »

https://x.com/ProtecttheFaith/status/17 ... 00612?s=20

Jorge Bergoglio thanks liberal Vatican journalists for helping cover up his role in protecting these sex abusers

Fr. Julio César Grassi
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
Fr. Mauro Inzoli
Bishop Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta
Fr. Marco Rupnik SJ

https://x.com/dianemontagna/status/1749 ... 87537?s=20

In an off the cuff remark today, #PopeFrancis thanked #Vatican journalists for their “delicacy...in speaking of scandals in the Church: there are some & many times I have seen in you a great delicacy, a respect, an almost, I say, ‘abashed’ silence: thank you for this attitude.”

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THE BENEFITS OF A CLASSICAL EDUCATION:

Post by Del »

Yesterday, Pipeson was enjoying an evening with some old friends from high school. As they were all graduates of a classical Catholic academy, the conversation and jokes wandered over a great span of history and Bible trivia.

Pipeson shared this snippet of the conversation:

-- "The Holy Innocents of Bethlehem never got an opportunity to know Christ, yet they are counted among the martyrs and recognized as saints. 500 years later, Boethius was executed by an Arian Roman Emperor, Theoderic the Ostrogoth, and Boethius hasn't even made the list yet."

-- "Yeah.... It's like 'Hey, Holy Father, there nothing much on the schedule today. How about we go over this list of a thousand worthy candidates and see if we can canonize some more saints?' And Francis says, "Nah. Let's just call the reporters and make some more really confusing off-the-cuff comments.' "

==========================
One of the guys in the group was not a graduate of St. Ambrose Academy, but he was engrossed in the conversation and kept peppering them with questions.

"Wait a minute -- the Roman Emperor wasn't a Roman? What's an Ostrogoth?"

<Pipeson explained how the Romans lost control of the Italian peninsula when the Goths were pushed out of the Balkans by the Huns. The Ostrogoths got Italy and the Visigoths pushed west out to Spain.>

One of the classical guys had a light bulb go on over his head, instinctively testing the etymologies of the names.... "You mean that the Visigoths were just 'West Goths' and the Ostrogoths were just "East Goths'? I thought they were two entirely different tribes or something!"

"Nope. Same people; different kingdoms. Goths of the East and Goths of the West."

At this point, I was thinking, "Holy crap! I always thought they were two different tribes too!"
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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Hovannes »

What about girl Goths?
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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Biff »

Hovannes wrote: 23 Jan 2024, 16:49 What about girl Goths?
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Does that qualify as a 'trad wife'?
Here I stand. I can do no other. :flags-wavegreatbritain: :flags-canada:
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The Pope Francis Thread

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Source: America
Link: americamagazine DOT org/faith/2024/01/17/pope-francis-lust-love-relationships-vices-virtues-246945
Pope Francis: Lust makes a mockery out of love

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Below is the text of Pope Francis’ weekly Wednesday audience, delivered on Jan. 17, 2024.

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Jan 17, 2024 — And today, let us listen well to the catechesis, because afterwards there will be a circus that will perform for us. Let us continue our journey concerning vices and virtues; and the ancient Fathers teach us that, after gluttony, the second ‘demon’ — that is, vice — that is always crouching at the door of the heart is that of lust, called porneia in Greek. While gluttony is voracity with regard to food, this second vice is a kind of ‘voracity’ with regard to another person, that is, the poisoned bond that human beings have with each other, especially in the sphere of sexuality.

Be careful: in Christianity, there is no condemnation of the sexual instinct. There is no condemnation. A book of the Bible, the Song of Songs, is a wonderful poem of love between two lovers. However, this beautiful dimension, the sexual dimension, the dimension of love, of our humanity is not without its dangers, so much so that St Paul already had to address the issue in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. St. Paul writes: “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans” (5:1). The Apostle's reproach concerns precisely an unhealthy handling of sexuality by some Christians.

[…]

If it is not polluted by vice, falling in love is one of the purest feelings. A person in love becomes generous, enjoys giving gifts, writes letters and poems. He stops thinking of himself to be completely focused on the other. This is beautiful. And if you ask a person in love, “Why you love?” they won’t have an answer: In so many ways their love is unconditional, without any reason. You must have patience if that love, which is so powerful, is also a little naive: lovers does not really know the face of the other, they tend to idealise them, they are ready to make promises whose weight they don’t immediately grasp. This ‘garden’ where wonders are multiplied is not, however, safe from evil. It is defiled by the demon of lust, and this vice is particularly odious, for at least two reasons. At least two.

First, because it destroys relationships between peoples. To prove such a reality, unfortunately, the daily news is sufficient. How many relationships that began in the best of ways have then turned into toxic relationships, of possession of the other, lacking respect and a sense of limits? These are loves in which chastity has been missing: a virtue not to be confused with sexual abstinence — chastity is something different from sexual abstinence — but rather must be connected with the will never to possess the other. To love is to respect the other, to seek his or her happiness, to cultivate empathy for his or her feelings, to dispose oneself in the knowledge of a body, a psychology, and a soul that are not our own, and that must be contemplated for the beauty they bear. That is love, and love is beautiful.

Lust, on the other hand, makes a mockery of all this: lust plunders, it robs, it consumes in haste, it does not want to listen to the other but only to its own need and pleasure; lust judges every courtship a bore, it does not seek that synthesis between reason, drive and feeling that would help us to conduct existence wisely. The lustful seeks only shortcuts: he does not understand that the road to love must be travelled slowly, and this patience, far from being synonymous with boredom, allows us to make our loving relationships happy.

But there is a second reason why lust is a dangerous vice. Among all human pleasures, sexuality has a powerful voice. It involves all the senses; it dwells both in the body and in the psyche, and this is very beautiful; but if it is not disciplined with patience, if it is not inscribed in a relationship and in a story where two individuals transform it into a loving dance, it turns into a chain that deprives human beings of freedom. Sexual pleasure that is a gift from God is undermined by pornography: satisfaction without relationship that can generate forms of addiction. We have to defend love, the love of the heart, of the mind, of the body, pure love in the giving of oneself to the other. And this is the beauty of sexual intercourse.

Winning the battle against lust, against the “objectification” of the other, can be a lifelong endeavor. But the prize of this battle is the most important of all, because it is preserving that beauty that God wrote into His creation when He imagined love between man and woman, which is not for the purpose of using one another, but of loving one another. That beauty that makes us believe that building a story together is better than going in search of adventures — there are so many Don Juans out there; building a story together is better than going in search of adventures; cultivating tenderness is better than bowing to the demon of possession — true love does not possess, it gives itself; serving is better than conquering. Because if there is no love, life is sad, it is sad loneliness.


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The Pope Francis Thread

Post by Wosbald »

+JMJ+

Source: Crux
Link: cruxnow DOT com/vatican/2024/01/amid-furor-over-vatican-doc-pope-says-aim-is-to-bless-people-not-same-sex-unions
Amid furor over Vatican doc, Pope says aim is to bless people, not same-sex unions

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ROME — Amid the ongoing furor over a recent Vatican declaration on the blessing of same-sex couples, Pope Francis on Friday appeared to try to rein in certain interpretations of the document, insisting that what’s at issue is a pastoral gesture directed at the people involved and not their union itself.

Speaking to members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Jan. 26, Francis said the intention of offering “pastoral and spontaneous blessings” to couples in irregular situations, including same-sex couples and divorced and remarried couples, is to express pastoral closeness.

The decision, he said, is intended “to concretely show the closeness of the Lord and of the Church to all those who, finding themselves in different situations, ask for help to carry on — sometimes to begin — a journey of faith.”

To this end, he stressed that “these blessings, outside of any liturgical context and form, do not require moral perfection to be received.”

He also insisted that “when a couple spontaneously approaches to ask for is, the union is not blessed, but simply the people who have requested it together. Not the union, but the people, naturally taking into account the context, the sensitivities, and the places in which one lives and the most suitable ways to do so.”

Pope Francis spoke to members of the DDF, led by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, during their plenary assembly.

His remarks came against the backdrop of ongoing controversy caused by DDF Declaration “Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” published Dec. 18 and which authorizes pastors to give spontaneous, non-liturgical blessings to couples in irregular situations, including divorced and remarried couples and those in same-sex unions.

[…]

On the topic of dignity, he said that Christians must never tire of promoting “the primacy of the human person” the defense of human dignity “beyond all circumstances.”

To this end, he noted that the DDF is currently preparing a document on human dignity and voiced hope that it would help the Church “to always be close to all those who, without proclamations, in concrete everyday life fight and pay personally to defend the rights of those do not count and ensure that … we are able to react with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that is not limited to words.”

In terms of the faith, Francis pointed to the publication of his exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”) in 2013, and the upcoming Jubilee of Hope in 2025, “in which we will renew our faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man, hope of history and of the world.”

Noting that the practice of faith is diminishing in many parts of the world, he said it is necessary to deepen reflection on issues such as “the communication of faith in today’s world, especially to the younger generations; the missionary conversion of ecclesial structures and pastoral agents; the new urban cultures, with their burden of challenges but also with unprecedented questions of meaning,” and the centrality “of the kerygma in the life and mission of the Church.”

The DDF can help in this regard, he said, saying to safeguard the faith in the current context means reflecting and discerning, “so that the entire community works toward a real kerygmatic pastoral and missionary conversion.”

“What is most essential, most beautiful and most attractive and at the same time most necessary for us is faith in Jesus Christ,” he said, stating the Church will renew this faith during the upcoming jubilee, and that each Christian “is called to announce it to every man and every woman of the earth. This is the fundamental task of the Church.”


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