ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM MEXICO (CNS) — As the plane carrying him back to Rome from Mexico was flying over Texas, Pope Francis insisted building walls to keep immigrants out of one’s country is un-Christian.
Holding his customary in-flight news conference Feb. 17 after a six-day trip that ended at the Mexico-U.S. border, Pope Francis was asked about his reaction to U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States extend the fence along the full length of the border and his comments to Fox Business Network that Pope Francis is a politician and is being used by Mexicans.
(See the English translation of the news conference here.)
“Aristotle defined the human person as ‘animal politicus’ — (so) at least I’m a human person” in Trump’s eyes, Pope Francis said.
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“As far as being ‘a pawn,'” the pope said, “that’s up to you, to the people, to decide.”
But one thing Pope Francis said he did know was that “a person who thinks only of building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, isn’t Christian.”
Asked if a Catholic could vote for such a candidate in good conscience, the pope told reporters: “I’m not going to get mixed up in that. I’ll just say, this man is not Christian if he says this” about building walls.
Pope Francis spent an hour answering questions, including about contraception and the Zika virus, the recently publicized letters between St. John Paul II and a woman philosopher, the sex abuse scandal and the reaction of Ukrainian Catholics to the joint declaration he signed with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow Feb. 12 in Cuba.
A reporter asked why he had spent so much of the week denouncing the ills that plague Mexico, but said nothing of the scandal of clerical sexual abuse and, in particular, about the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ. The priest lived a double life, fathering children and sexually abusing numerous seminarians.
Pope Francis’ comment on Father Maciel’s case was to praise retired Pope Benedict XVI who, as a cardinal and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, tenaciously investigated the allegations and insisted “there was a need to clean the church’s dirt, the garbage.”
The Catholic Church has done much in the past dozen years to protect children, he said, but the work is ongoing. In fact, he said, when he met with his international Council of Cardinals before leaving on the Cuba-Mexico trip, it was decided that the doctrinal congregation should have a new adjunct secretary to oversee the Vatican investigations of abuse allegations against priests.
Asked what should be done with a bishop who simply transfers an accused priest from one parish to another, Pope Francis said such a bishop is “a man without a conscience, and the best thing he can do is present his resignation. Is that clear?”
The sexual abuse of a child by a priest is “a monstrosity,” he said.
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While Pope Francis was in Mexico, the BBC ran a story on previously unpublished letters from St. John Paul II to Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, a philosopher. Many news reports on the letters raised doubts about the relationship being strictly a platonic friendship.
Pope Francis said the friendship was not a secret; “I already knew about this friendship between St. John Paul II and this philosopher when I was in Buenos Aires.”
“A man who does not know how to have a relationship of friendship with a woman — I’m not talking about misogynists; those are sick — well, he’s a man who is missing something,” the pope said.
In his own experience, he said, it is important to get a woman’s opinion when making decisions because “they look at things in a different way.”
Even for a priest or a pope, he said, “a friendship with a woman is not a sin, it’s a friendship. A romantic relationship with a woman who is not your wife — that is sin. Understand?
“But the pope is a man. The pope needs the input of women, too. And the pope, too, has a heart that can have a healthy, holy friendship with a woman. There are saint-friends — Francis and Clare, Teresa and John of the Cross — don’t be frightened,” he told reporters.
Pope Francis recognized that priests’ friendships with women are still suspect, which is a shame, he said. “We have not understood the good that a woman can do for the life of a priest and of the church in the sense of counsel, help, healthy friendship.”
The pope also was asked about an interview Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, gave Feb. 13 in which he said Ukrainians felt “deep disappointment” over the joint declaration.
“When I read this, I was worried,” said the pope, who explained that he has known and respected Archbishop Shevchuk for years.
The archbishop’s criticism seemed “a bit strange,” he said, but when people speak, their words must be read in the context of what they are living. The Ukrainians have the experience of Russian aggression toward the Ukrainian Catholic Church and Russian support for separatist fighting in Eastern Ukraine. That experience cannot be ignored, he said.
“You can understand how people in that situation feel this way,” the pope said. The archbishop’s right to express his opinion must be respected, he said, “especially in this situation.”
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Pope Francis Donald Trump 2-19-16
Pope Francis is our first politically correct and progressive pope. When asked about homosexuality he lamely proclaimed, “Who am I to judge?” this is a very astute answer for a politician but not a pope but it does show you his true character. Now the pope proclaims that Donald Trump and all those who want to protect their country with a wall are not Christian. While abortion and homosexuality promoting candidate, Hillary Clinton, has not been judge by this pope as not being Christian even though abortion and homosexuality are considered both intrinsic evils while wall building is not. Pope Francis keep leading the flock astray for his false and dangerous progressive agenda.
Jerry
This is sad and embarrassing. One has to wonder if Pope Francis’ judgment is coming undone. His actions are becoming more and more opinionated and divisive.
This latest papal episode of moral accusatory finger pointing towards Mr. Trump, in the midst of a very partisan US political campaign, is so bizarre as to be incomprehensible.
How in the world can a Pope who goes about as an example of God’s infinite love and mercy completely change character and become dark and unloving and unmerciful to the point of morally announcing to the whole world that a person who he disagrees with is not a Christian?
This is not a way to bring people together and to draw them to God? Just the opposite, it is divisive and destructive? And it is contrary to the New Evangelization that the Pope is always talking about.
Finally it is also damaging to the American Catholic Church because it makes the Church appear to Americans that the Church does not care about America’s immigration laws and the wishes of law abiding American citizens, including Mr. Trump, who rightly want to enforce the immigration laws and stop the current influx of millions of illegal lawbreaking immigrants who are hurting the country. Immigrants who are overloading our welfare systems, are the source of the influx of illegal drugs, gangs, and gang warfare, and are a known source of potential foreign terrorism. Immigrants who are taking jobs away from legal Americans, causing ever increasing federal deficits, and financially burdening law abiding middle class American citizens who are unjustly footing the bill and paying ever increasing taxes to cover the deficit overloads.
Hmmm. I wonder if the Pope thinks about or has visited any walled — gated — communities for the middle class and the wealthy that are increasingly common across the world as the better off try to separate themselves from the less fortunate?
In fact the wealthy Vatican itself is a walled community keeping everybody but the chosen few and select guests out and thus discriminates against the rest of the citizens of Rome.
As for Donald Trump, don’t vote for him. Vote for Bernie.
I think he does know about gated communities of the e=wealthy, but the wall around the Vatican dates from the time of the Vatican States, when it was a political nation. Today one easily “gets into” the square in front of St. Peter’s and into the church itself. I don’t think it is very hard to get permission for a papal audience. The most dubious thing is whether Francis would be there, or having lunch in his guest house So, don’t vote for Trump, vote for Bernie. He has never built a wall here in Vermont, even though we have an extensive foreign border. (Some of those Canadians are Syrian, Palestinian, and many are Latino. Montreal is one of the most international and multi-ethnic cities in the world.