CNA<\/a>).- Pope Francis: I thank you for your day of work, for me and also for you it was a bit powerful.<\/p>\nInes San Martin (Crux): Holy Father, what we\u2019ve read\u2026 The first question is about the trip. This trip is happening just after an accord between the European Union and Turkey has come about \u2026 Do you think this is a political question in order save time? This morning, you met with the presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, at Santa Martha. I wanted to ask you your sensations on the meeting and on your way of approaching North American politics\u2026<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: \u201cFirst of all, there is no political speculation because I didn\u2019t know much about these accords between Turkey and Europe. I saw them in the newspapers. Bringing these refugees away is a humanitarian thing. It was an inspiration from a week ago that I immediately accepted, because I saw that it was the Holy Spirit who was speaking. Everything was done legally. They\u2019ve come with us with their documents in order. The Vatican, Italy and Greece have given them a visa. They will be welcomed by the Vatican with the collaboration of Sant\u2019Egidio who will find work for them. But they are guests of the Vatican and they are added to the two Syrian families that are already given hospitality by the two Vatican parishes.<\/p>\n
Second. This morning when I walked out, there was Senator Bernie Sanders who came to the congress on \u201cCentessimus Annus.\u201d He knew that I was leaving at that time and he had the courteousness to greet me. I greeted him and his wife, and another couple with him that was staying in Santa Marta, because all of the members of the congress, except the heads of state who I believe were staying in their embassies, were staying at the Santa Martha residence. I gave a greeting and nothing more. A greeting is an educated thing to do and does not mean not to be mixed up with politics. If someone thinks that to give a greeting means to get mixed up in politics, I think he needs a psychiatrist.<\/p>\n
\nFranca Giansoldati (Il Messaggero): You speak much about welcoming, but perhaps you speak too little about integration. Seeing what is happening in Europe, where there\u2019s this massive influx of immigrants, we see that there are many cities that suffer from ghetto sectors\u2026 in all of this, it emerges that Muslim immigrants are those who have the most difficult time integrating themselves with our values, Western values\u2026 wouldn\u2019t it be more useful to favor the immigration of Christian immigrants? And why did you favor three entirely Muslim families?<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: I didn\u2019t make a religious choice between Christians and Muslims. These three families had their documents in order. There were, for example,\u00a0 two Christian families who didn\u2019t. This is not a privilege. All 12 of them are children of God. It\u2019s a privilege to be a child of God. For what regards integration\u2026you said a word which in current culture seems to be forgotten, after war still exist: the ghettos. And some of the terrorists are children and grandchildren of people born in European countries and what has happened? There was no policy of integration. And this, for me, is fundamental. In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation integration is spoken of. One of the the three pastoral dimensions for families in difficulty is integration into society. Today, Europe must take up again this capacity that it has always had: to integrate. With integration, Europe\u2019s culture\u00a0 is enriched. I think that we need an education, a lesson, on a culture of integration.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elena Pinardi (EBU): Holy Father, they\u2019re talking about reinforcing the borders of different European countries, of deploying battalions along the borders of Europe. Is it the end of Schengen, is it the end of the European dream?<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: I don\u2019t know. I understand the governments and the people that have a certain fear. I understand. And, we must take a real responsibility for welcoming. How do we integrate these people with us? I\u2019ve said this, but making walls is not the solution. We saw it in the last century, the fall of one. It doesn\u2019t resolve anything. We must make bridges and bridges are made with intelligence, dialogue, integration. I understand the fear, but to close the borders doesn\u2019t resolve anything. Because in the long run, that closure will hurt the people themselves. Europe must make a policy of welcoming, integration, growth, work, the reform of the economy. All of these are the bridges that lead us to not making walls. After what I\u2019ve seen in that refugee camp, and what you saw, was to cry about. The kids. They\u2019ve given me so many drawings. The children want peace because they\u2019re suffering. It\u2019s true that there they have educational courses in the camp. What have they seen? Look at this: what they\u2019ve seen: a drowned child! The kids have got this in their hearts. Today was truly to cry about. It was to cry about. The same drawing was made by an Afghan child. These children have this in their memories. They\u2019ll need time to remove this from their memories. There was a sun that cried in the drawing. A tear would also do us well.<\/p>\n
\nFanny Carrier (AFP): Why don\u2019t you make a distinction between those who flee because of war and those who flee because of hunger? Can Europe give welcome to the misery of the world?<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: It\u2019s true, I said that some run because of war, others because of hunger. Together the two are both the effects of the exploitation of the earth. A head of government in Africa told me more or less a month ago that he is reforesting, because the land that was exploited was dead because of exploitation. Some run because of hunger, others because of war. I would invite the arms producers and traffickers, those who sell them to make war in different places \u2013 in Syria for example \u2013 I would tell these traffickers to spend a day in that camp, I think it would be healthy for them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nestor Pongut\u00e0, W Radio (Colombia): Good afternoon, Holiness. I\u2019ll ask you the question in Spanish and then you respond in Italian. You said something very special this morning that really caught our attention: this is a sad trip. (And we understood from your words that you were really moved.) But, something changed in your heart when we found out about these 12 people, with this little gesture you\u2019ve give a lesson to those who have turned their gaze before so much pain, before this \u201cpiecemeal third world war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: I will respond with a phrase that is not mine. They asked the same thing to Mother Teresa. They would say to her: \u2018You spend so much strength, so much work, to help people to die, but what you do is not worth it.\u2019 And she replied: \u2018It\u2019s a drop, it\u2019s a drop of water in the sea, but after that drop, the sea will never be the same.\u2019 Like this it\u2019s possible. It\u2019s a small act that we all must do in order to take the hand of those in need.<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\nJosh McElwee (NCReporter): Thank you, Holy Father. We\u2019ve gone to a nation of migrations, but also of an economic policy of austerity. I would like to ask you if you have an economic thought of austerity and also for another island, Puerto Rico. Do you have a thought on this policy of austerity?<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: The work austerity mean, from an economic point of view, a chapter of a program. Politically it means another, and spiritually it means another. When I speak, I do so in comparison with waste. The FAO, it seems to me, in a meeting said that with one wasted meal, you could nourish the world. And we, in our homes, how much do we waste without intending to? This culture of waste. Austerity in the sense in which we speak and austerity in a Christian sense, let\u2019s stop here and divide it a bit. I speak only in a Christian sense.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Francisco Romero (Rome Reports): Holiness, I simply would like to say: you have said that this refugee crisis is the worst after the Second World War. I would like to ask you what you think of the crises of migrants that arrive in America, in the United States, from Mexico, from Latin America\u2026<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: It\u2019s the same thing. Migrants arrive there fleeing from hunger, etc. It\u2019s the same problem. In Mexico, I celebrated Mass 100 meters from the border, where on the other side there were some 50 bishops from the U.S. and 50,000 faithful in one stadium. It\u2019s the same. They arrive to Mexico from Central America. It\u2019s a global problem. I spoke about it there to the Mexican bishops, I asked them to take care of the refugees.<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\nFrank Rocca (Wall Street Journal): Thanks, Holy Father. I see that the questions on immigration that I had thought to ask you have been asked and answered by you very well. If you permit me, I\u2019d like to ask you another question about an event of recent days, which was your apostolic exhortation. As you well know, there has been much discussion about on one of the many, I know that we\u2019ve focused on this a lot\u2026there has been much discussion after the publication. Some sustain that nothing has changed with respect to the discipline that regulates access to the sacraments for the divorced and remarried, that the Law, the pastoral praxis and obviously the doctrine remain the same. Others sustain that much has changed and that there are new openings and possibilities. For a Catholic who wants to know: are there new, concrete possibilities that didn\u2019t exist before the publication of the exhortation or not?
\n\u00a0
\nPope Francis: I can say yes, many. But it would be an answer that is too small. I recommend that you read the presentation of Cardinal Schonborn, who is a great theologian. He was the secretary for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and he knows the doctrine of the faith well. In that presentation, your question will find an answer.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jean-Marie Guenois (Le Figaro): I had the same question, but it\u2019s a complementary question because you wrote this famous \u2018Amoris Laetitia\u2019 on the problems of the divorced and remarried (footnote 351). Why put something so important in a little note? Did you foresee the opposition or did you mean to say that this point isn\u2019t that important?<\/p>\n
Pope Francis: One of the recent popes, speaking of the Council, said that there were two councils: the Second Vatican Council in the Basilica of St. Peter, and the other, the council of the media. When I convoked the first synod, the great concern of the majority of the media was communion for the divorced and remarried, and, since I am not a saint, this bothered me, and then made me sad. Because, thinking of those media who said, this, this and that, do you not realize that that is not the important problem? Don\u2019t you realize that instead the family throughout the world is in crisis? Don\u2019t we realize that the falling birth rate in Europe is enough to make one cry? And the family is the basis of society. Do you not realize that the youth don\u2019t want to marry? Don\u2019t you realize that the fall of the birth rate in Europe is to cry about? Don\u2019t you realize that the lack of work or the little work (available) means that a mother has to get two jobs and the children grow up alone? These are the big problems. I don\u2019t remember the footnote, but for sure if it\u2019s something general in a footnote it\u2019s because I spoke about it, I think, in \u2018Evangelii Gaudium.\u2019
\n\u00a0
\nThanks a lot, I feel calm with you. Now, they will give you something to eat!<\/p>\n
\n
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Aboard the papal plane, Apr 16, 2016 \/ 11:09 am (CNA).- Pope Francis: I thank you for your day of work, for me and also for you it was a bit powerful.<\/p>\n
Ines San Martin (Crux): Holy Father, what we’ve read… The first question is about the t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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