VATICAN CITY — U.S. President Joe Biden should consult with his bishop or parish priest about his stance on abortion, Pope Francis said, adding that the primary concern of bishops should be pastoral care.
In an interview that aired in the United States July 11 on Univision, the Spanish-language network, the pope was asked his opinion about President Biden’s continuing support for abortion.
“I leave it to his conscience and that he speaks to his bishop, his pastor, his parish priest about that inconsistency,” he said.
The pope was also asked about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Rome and her reportedly receiving Communion at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica despite being barred from receiving in her home Archdiocese of San Francisco.
In May, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco declared that Pelosi was not “to be admitted” to Communion unless and until she publicly repudiates “support for abortion ‘rights'” and goes to confession and receives absolution “for her cooperation in this evil.”
When asked why Pelosi was allowed to receive Communion at the Vatican, the pope noted that she continues to receive the Eucharist in Washington, D.C., as well.
When asked by Reuters news agency July 2 about the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization June 24, a decision that stated there is no constitutional right to abortion in the United States, Pope Francis said he could not comment on the technicalities of the decision nor on Roe v. Wade, which it overturned.
However, he said, abortion itself “is a problem.”
“I ask: ‘Is it licit, is it right, to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem?’ It’s a human life — that’s science,” the pope said. “The moral question is whether it is right to take a human life to solve a problem. Indeed, is it right to hire a hit man to solve a problem?”
Pope Francis also spoke to Univision about gun violence and the growing trend of mass shootings in the United States, particularly the most recent shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Illinois.
The phenomenon of mass shootings “is a grave social problem,” he said, and it would be important to look into the “aggressiveness” of those who “opt to destroy and not build.”
“What is happening in the education of these people, what is happening in their way of life, what is happening in their personal history of human psychological development that makes these people go on attacking and destroying?” the pope asked.
When asked whether guns or the devil were at fault for such violence, the pope said that “a war of this kind is certainly never inspired by the Holy Spirit” because the desire “to destroy humanity itself is something diabolical.”
Nevertheless, the pope said the solution to preventing mass shootings cannot be achieved by “looking at the effects; we must look at the causes.”
“Why are there young people who are so unsatisfied that they can feel fulfilled only by destroying. And even in the most recent shootings that have occurred all over, they (the shooters) have said, ‘I had to do it,'” he said.
The world, he added, “is becoming more and more aggressive” due to the current climate of war and the selling of weapons.
“In the United States, that is one of the problems that is concerning the authorities: how to monitor, how to regulate the sale of weapons. That is what provokes this life of aggression. It does us no good and it destroys,” the pope said.
Pope Francis also addressed rumors about his possible retirement, rumors that grew after the Vatican announced that in late August, he plans to visit the burial place of Pope Celestine V, the first pope to resign.
Once again, the pope confirmed that “I have never thought about retiring, even to this day.”
“Truly, in this moment, I don’t feel that the Lord is asking me” to retire, he said. “When I feel that he asks me, then yes. The knee problem did scare me, in the sense that I had to start thinking a bit about my future. Thank God it is getting better.”
However, the pope said that if he were to retire, he would not stay at the Vatican nor go back to his native Argentina.
“No. I am a bishop of Rome. In that case, I would be the emeritus bishop of Rome,” he said.
“Would you go to St. John Lateran?” asked Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki. “Perhaps. I would go to a church and do confessions,” he replied.
The pope explained that before his election in 2013, he had made plans to retire as archbishop of Buenos Aires at the end of the year and had already chosen a room at a retirement home for priests in the city.
The residence, he said, was five blocks from a parish, “my parish — where I would go to as a child — and there are a lot of confessions. And it was half a block away from a big hospital,” he said.
“Between doing confessions there (at the parish) and visiting the sick, that’s where I saw my apostolate, my work; to be at the service of people where needed,” Pope Francis added. “If I survive, I would like something like that.”
Reminded that he had been wrong when he’d said he expected to have a short pontificate, the pope replied, “The same thing used to happen to me whenever I bought a lottery ticket!”
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In the above article each and every one of the questions put to the Pope is answered with a remark that is so vague, or so designed to deflect, that they make no sense. As far as abortion the Pope admits “it is a problem” but only alludes to other vague comparisons instead of coming right out and stating the Church’s official stance on abortion.
When asked about biden’s support for abortion, the Pope deflects it by saying that biden “should consult with his bishop or parish priest”. Is the Pope not the head of the Catholic Church, and as such he should be the ultimate source for the Church’s official position on abortion. Yet he says biden should talk to someone else.
When asked why Pelosi was given Communion in Rome while being denied it by her own Bishop in her hometown church, the Pope makes excuses and deflects by saying that Pelosi was also given Communion in Washington D.C. Once again, is the Pope not the head of the Catholic Church? As such he should be able to make a commitment as to whether the correct actions are being taken by denying Pelosi Communion for her support of abortion.
The Pope appears to be just another politician, refusing to take a definite stand on the Church’s position on the importance of protecting the lives of the unborn children if it places him in conflict with the actions of rich, elite politicians. If one cannot come to the Pope for guidance based on the teachings and beliefs of the Church, then where can one go?
poop francis is a politician, not a clergyman. A liberal politician who has no business wearing the collar. He isn’t even on a casual acquaintance with the Bible, and probably couldn’t even quote John 3:16, or any other scripture.
How about the one where Jesus says “He who is not with me is against me.”? When King Herod sent his troops to kill all the babes 2 years and under in Bethlehemn, this Pope might say “I’ll drink to that, get me some bread and wine!” WHich in case he forgot, represents the body and blood of our Savior who in the case of abortion is not with him, so must be against him.
He’s a FALSE pope imo.
“…. In May, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco declared that Pelosi was not “to be admitted” to Communion unless and until she publicly repudiates “support for abortion ‘rights’” and goes to confession and receives absolution “for her cooperation in this evil.”
“…. When asked why Pelosi was allowed to receive Communion at the Vatican, the pope noted that she continues to receive the Eucharist in Washington, D.C., as well….”
ELENORE ROOSEVELT Was Supposed TO have said, ” I’ll Get the Black Vote, you get the White, and we can Stay in The White House as Long as We Like.” To Paraphrase This Quote, Nancy Pelosi and Her Husband said ” You get the right Pope, and we can take Commuion Wherever we Like…”
“Pope Francis said, adding that the primary concern of bishops should be pastoral care.”,,,,,and reward unbiblical truths propagated by Presidential prodigal sheep to be shorn, only to find wolves inside those sheep’s clothing. I just do not get this Pope. We asked for the vicar of Christ, but the popularity of the shouting crowd just gave us Barabbas. The phenomenon of mass shootings is a direct result of people in positions of Church authority compromising the scriptural truths with the same end goals of the Biden Crime family, namely money, fame, power, or just the convenience of taking the paths of least resistance. Yes, indeed “the desire to destroy humanity itself is something diabolical.” Chicago Democrats do it every day, if not with guns, with taxes while Church leaders conveniently surrender unto Caesar what is not Caesar’s but God’s image, born or unborn.
This is why the Church is in trouble. Weak leadership. And I speak as a practicing Catholic.
Could this be the result of liberation theology where the Church is trying to seek a balance between the secularized world with the teachings and tenets of the Church, something that is impossible to do!
I am not Catholic but it was the Catholic Church that was the first organized church of the Christians. That being said, there have been times in history when the Catholic church has made some royal screw ups. Making this guy Pope is one of the most recent. If anyone knows their Bible, it does speak of phonies like Biden and Pelosi who think they will be invited into God’s kingdom of Heaven. Jesus will say “I never knew you.” But the fate of a false prophet, like the current Pope, will be far worse. But the 3 I mentioned can look on the bright side of where they will be spending eternity. At least it’s a dry heat.
Wrong. Read the book of Acts. Catholicism is way down on the list of churches.
I’m glad I’m not a practicing Catholic anymore. John Paul 2 must be rolling in his grave right now.
The Pope, of all people, should know that it is not the sale of weapons, but the rejection and abolition of God from large swathes of society, that is the reason for this increasingly widespread disregard for the sanctity of human life. He, of all people, ought to recognize that this is a moral problem that stems from rebellion against God, not from the sale of tools.