Thursday, September 19, 2013

"A Big Heart Open to God"

By now, you have probably heard many variations of the words of Pope Francis in his interview with Jesuit journals around the world.  Click here if you'd like to read the interview on the America website.

Here are a few excerpts:

 "My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative....but I have never been a right-winger.”    [In this quotation, Pope Francis is referring to the authoritarianism he displayed as provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina, a post to which he was appointed at the "crazy" (his words) age of 36.]

“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, or reject and condemn this person? We must always consider the person.”

“We should not even think, therefore, that ‘thinking with the church’ means only thinking with the hierarchy of the church.”

“If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing.”

"We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that...The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time."

"I am a sinner."

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