NYTimes | Six months into his papacy, Pope Francis sent shock waves through the
Roman Catholic church on Thursday with the publication of his remarks
that the church had grown “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and
contraception, and that he had chosen not to talk about those issues
despite recriminations from critics.
His surprising comments came in a lengthy interview in which he
criticized the church for putting dogma before love, and for
prioritizing moral doctrines over serving the poor and marginalized. He
articulated his vision of an inclusive church, a “home for all” — which
is a striking contrast with his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, the
doctrinal defender who envisioned a smaller, purer church.
Francis told the interviewer, a fellow Jesuit: “It is not necessary to
talk about these issues all the time. The dogmatic and moral teachings
of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry
cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of
doctrines to be imposed insistently.
“We have to find a new balance,” the pope continued, “otherwise even the
moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards,
losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”
The pope’s interview did not change church doctrine or policies, but it
instantly changed its tone. His words evoked gratitude and hope from
many liberal Catholics who had felt left out in the cold during the
papacies of Benedict and his predecessor, John Paul II, which together
lasted 35 years. Some lapsed Catholics suggested on social media a
return to the church, and leaders of gay rights and gay Catholic groups
called on bishops to abandon their fight against gay marriage.
But it left conservative and traditionalist Catholics, and those who
have devoted themselves to the struggles against abortion, gay marriage
and artificial contraception, on the defensive, though some cast it as
nothing new.
“Nobody should try to use the words of the pope to minimize the urgent
need to preach and teach about abortion,” said the Rev. Frank Pavone,
national director of Priests for Life, who said he spoke Thursday about
the “priority of the abortion issue” at a Vatican conference.
The interview with Francis was conducted by the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica,
an Italian Jesuit journal whose content is approved by the Vatican.
Francis, the first Jesuit to become a pope, agreed to grant the interview after requests from Father Spadaro and the editors of America, a Jesuit magazine based in New York.
Father Spadaro conducted the interview during three meetings in August
in the pope’s spartan quarters in Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican
guesthouse, where Francis said he had chosen to live because it is less
isolated than the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace. “I cannot
live without people,” Francis told Father Spadaro.
