During the interview, Pope Francis responded to various questions regarding the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which he officially brought to a close yesterday morning with a Mass in Saint Peter’s Square.
A few of the highlights from the broad-ranging conversation were a powerful reiteration of the Church’s constant teaching on abortion, calling the practice a horrendous crime and a very grave sin.
The Pope also spoke of his own opposition to the death penalty, saying, There can’t be a true punishment that comes without hope. He also said, If a penalty doesn’t have hope, it’s not a Christian penalty, it’s not human. This shaded perceptibly into an expression of his unease with life imprisonment, which he called a sort of hidden death penalty, since it denies prisoners the hope of being someday restored to free participation in social life.
Pope Francis’ remarks on abortion came in response to a question regarding his own most striking experiences during the Year of Mercy, which included a call on the neonatal ward at a Roman hospital and a visit with rescued victims of human trafficking, both of which were a part of his Mercy Friday outings – monthly visits to people on the existential margins of society and to some of the organizations that assist the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
The Pope also renewed his call for a poor Church that is for the poor in keeping with the Gospel, and in this context, his repeated warnings against the temptation of riches. The greatest enemy of God is money, he said. The devil always enters through the pockets, always.
Pope Francis also expressed his discomfort with praise, saying he has an allergy to adulation – and that those who praise emptily are really attempting by their praise to practice on the person they are praising. To adulate someone is also to use them for your own purposes – whether hidden or visible – but to obtain something for yourself, said Pope Francis.
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