Seasons of Grace
You’ve just got to love it. In an exclusive interview with the Argentinian newspaper LA NACION, Pope Francis explained why he remains unflustered by all the talk about everything he does and says. “I just do what I have to do. From the start,” he said, “I said to myself, ‘Jorge, don’t change, just keep on being yourself, because to change at your age would be to make a fool of yourself.'”
In the wide-ranging interview, the pope acknowledged some difficulties which have slowed his intended reforms.
The reform of the Roman Curia will not be ready next year, as he had initially anticipated. “There is still a long way to go,” he said.
A certain resistance has surfaced. This, though, Pope Francis regards as a good thing. “I think it’s a good sign when things are discussed openly and not secretly if people don’t agree. It’s good to discuss things openly, it’s healthy.”
Controversy erupted after the Synod of Bishops on the family, which took place in October. For example, there was concern after Cardinal Kasper proposed permitting Catholics who have been divorced and remarried to receive the Eucharist. Pope Francis acknowledged that the General Assembly had allowed in-house divisons to surface, but explained, “The German Cardinal Walter Kasper said we should look for hypothesis, that is, he paved the way. And some people got frightened.”
The Pope insisted, though, that there was no need for confusion; the synod is “a process” and “the doctrine of the Church on marriage was not addressed at all.”
“I am not afraid,” he said, “of walking the synod road (synod comes from the Greek “syn”, “odos” walk together) because that is the path that God expects us to walk. Indeed, the Pope is the ultimate guarantor.”
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