2023-05-26 17:03:00
May 26, 2023 / 10:03 a.m.
In an interview published this Friday, May 26 by Telemundo NewsPope Francis spoke about his state of health, the peace mission in Ukraine, abortion, celibacy and child abuse within the Church, among other topics.
The conversation with the Mexican journalist Julio Vaqueiro took place yesterday, Thursday May 25, before the start of a meeting with young people from the Scholas Occurrentes Foundation.
Celibacy and child abuse in the Church
Pope Francis assured that celibacy “has nothing to do” with the abuse of minors within the Church.
To the question “Do you believe that celibacy is linked, does it have something to do with the abuse of minors within the Church?”, the Holy Father stressed that “32%, in other countries 36%, of abuse is in the family, uncle, grandfather, and all married, or with neighbors. Later, in the sports venues, later, in the schools… there are the statistics, they are those”.
“So it has nothing to do with it, because the uncles are married, the grandparents are married and sometimes they are the first rapists. […] I’m not saying that all uncles, grandparents. I’m talking about the statistics, ”she expressed.
Since the beginning of his pontificate, the Pope has promoted a series of measures to deal with sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. On April 30, 2023, the motu proprio entered into force “You are the light of the world” (You are the light of the world), which establishes norms to protect minors, vulnerable adults and the crime of using “child pornography material”.
In his address to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on May 5, the Holy Father stressed that “the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and its mismanagement by ecclesiastical leaders has been one of the greatest challenges for the Church in our time.
The abortion
In the context of the debate in the United States around abortion, the journalist Vaqueiro asked Pope Francis: “Do you believe that a woman who was raped has the right not to have her child that is the product of that rape?”
The Pontiff reiterated his message in favor of life: “I say this about abortion: in any book on embryology, one of those that is studied by sophomores at the university, it says that one month after conception, before the mother Realize, there’s the whole organ system already drawn inside and the DNA is clear. In other words, she is a living being. I am not saying a person, he is a living being.
“So,” he continued, “I ask myself a question: is it lawful to eliminate a living being to solve a problem? Second question: Is it lawful to hire a hitman to solve a problem? And there it is. You’re not going to get me out of there. Because it is the truth,” Pope Francis said.
Recently, the Holy Father condemned the “insane right to abortion” in his first speech in Budapest (Hungary), on April 28. According to Catholic doctrine, abortion is never justified, since no one has the right to decide over the life of another person, except that of the unborn.
The war in Ukraine
On the other hand, Pope Francis also reflected on the situation of Ukrainian minors forcibly taken to Russia and on the mission headed by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to try to achieve peace in Ukraine.
Vaqueiro reminded the Pope of the position of Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski, who, after his visit to the Vatican on May 13, expressed that he does not need intermediaries and that he wanted the Pontiff to join his peace plan, which includes Russia return the invaded territories.
“Well, that was not the tone of the conversation,” Pope Francis explained. “He asked me a very big favor, to try to take care of the boys who had been taken to Russia. Look, I ask you that. They don’t dream so much about mediations, because the Ukrainian bloc is really very strong. All Europe, United States. In other words, they have a very large force of their own, ”he added.
“Do you think Russia should return those territories?” insisted the journalist. The Pontiff responded: “It is a political problem. Peace will be achieved the day they can talk, either the two of them or through others”.
The Holy Father had already referred to the possibility of mediation in favor of the Ukrainian children deported in Russia on his return flight from Budapest to Rome at the end of April.
In a meeting with diplomats on the day of Our Lady of Fatima, to whom he entrusted the search for paths of peace for Ukraine, and before his meeting with President Zelensky, the Pope had also expressed the “positive neutrality” of the Holy See that can help resolve conflicts and wars.
The pope’s health
Asked about how his health is going, Pope Francis assured that “much better. I can walk now. The knee was getting fixed and before he couldn’t walk. Now I have walked again. There are days that are more painful, like today. There are days that not, but it is part of the development ”.
In March of this year, the Holy Father was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome for respiratory problems.
During the press conference on the flight back to Rome after his apostolic trip to Budapest (Hungary), a month later, Pope Francis was asked about his state of health, and explained: “There was a strong discomfort at the end of the audience on Wednesday, I didn’t feel like eating, I lay down a bit, I didn’t lose consciousness, but I did have a very high fever and at three in the afternoon the doctor immediately took me to the hospital”.
The Pontiff clarified that he had “strong acute pneumonia, in the lower part of the lung, thank God I can tell you, to such an extent that the organism, the body, responded well. Thank God. This is what I had.”
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