Pope Francis Complains: Catholic Church must find new balance on gays, abortion, contraception
Pope Francis is warning that the Catholic Church’s
moral edifice might “fall like a house of cards” if it doesn’t balance
its divisive rules about abortion, gays and contraception with the
greater need to make the church a merciful, more welcoming place for all.
Six months into his papacy, Francis set out his vision for the church and his priorities as pope in a remarkably candid and lengthy interview with La Civilta Cattolica,
the Italian Jesuit magazine. It was published simultaneously Thursday
in other Jesuit journals, including America magazine in the United
States.
In the 12,000-word article, Francis
expands on his groundbreaking comments over the summer about gays and
acknowledges some of his own faults. He sheds light on his favorite
composers, artists, authors and films (Mozart, Caravaggio, Dostoevsky
and Fellini’s “La Strada”) and says he prays even while at the
dentist’s office.
But his vision of what the church should be stands out, primarily because it contrasts so sharply with many of the priorities of his immediate predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
They were both intellectuals for whom doctrine was paramount, an
orientation that guided the selection of generations of bishops and
cardinals around the globe.
“The church’s
pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a
disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently,” Francis said. “We have to find a new balance; 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.”
Rather, he said, the Catholic Church
must be like a “field hospital after battle,” healing the wounds of
its faithful and going out to find those who have been hurt, excluded
or have fallen away.
“It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars!” Francis said. “You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else.”
“The church
sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded
rules,” he lamented. “The most important thing is the first
proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all.”
The
admonition is likely to have sharp reverberations in the United
States, where some bishops already have publicly voiced dismay that Francis
hasn’t hammered home church teaching on abortion, contraception and
homosexuality — areas of the culture wars in which U.S. bishops often
put themselves on the front lines. U.S. bishops were also behind Benedict’s
crackdown on American nuns, who were accused of letting doctrine take a
backseat to their social justice work of caring for the poor —
precisely the priority that Francis is endorsing.
Just
last week, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., wrote in his
diocesan newspaper that he was “a little bit disappointed” that Francis hadn’t addressed abortion since being elected.
Francis acknowledged that he had been “reprimanded” for not speaking out on such issues, but he said he didn’t need to.
“We
cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the
use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible,” he said. “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.”
Francis, the first Jesuit to become pope,
was interviewed by Civilta Cattolica’s editor, the Rev. Antonio
Spadaro, over three days in August at the Vatican hotel where Francis chose to live rather than the papal apartments. The Vatican vets all content of the journal, and the pope approved the Italian version of the article.
Nothing Francis
said in this or other interviews indicate any change in church
teaching, but he has set a different tone and signaled new priorities
compared to Benedict and John Paul — priorities that already have been
visible in his simple style, his outreach to the most marginalized and
his insistence that priests be pastors, not bureaucrats.