“In every juridical structure”, he maintained, “conscientious objection should be present, since it is a human right”.
Advertisement
In addition, Sr. Sammut said Pope Francis had accepted their proposal for a commission to study women’s expanded role in the ministry. “Confessional states end badly”. However, everyone must have the freedom to externalize his or her own faith.
“A parish wouldn’t function without women”, said the Rev. Anthony Talarico, pastor of Holy Ghost Church in South Holland. Similarly, if a Catholic wishes to wear a cross. “But one must be honest: The pope did not say he intends to introduce a diaconal ordination for women and even less did he speak of the priestly ordination of women”. It then takes on colonialist overtones, ” Pope Francis said.
St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were both theologically conservative pontiffs who said that such a move was unjustified and could undermine the concept of the all-male priesthood.
When he was asked why he never referred to Europe’s roots as Christian – he has often spoken of Europe having a multicultural identity – Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, said he spoke of “roots” in the plural because there were so many. “But this must be done in a spirit of service”.
“To talk about someone when they are absent is not evangelical”, the pope said. The two, properly speaking, have nothing to do with one another, and conflating them as part of a general drive for ever more radical “reform” in the Church looks like a dangerously easy way to ensure the whole issue of lay participation in ecclesiastical life is derailed by an unnecessary fight over settled doctrinal matters.
He hailed the election of Sadiq Khan as London’s first Muslim mayor as a symbol of Europe’s ability to integrate people of all faiths.
Asked if the fear of Islam in Europe is justified, Francis said there is not “a fear of Islam as such”, but rather “of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam”.
“It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam, ” he said.
“It is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest”.
Francis has also repeatedly said – as he reiterated on Thursday – that he wants to see women assume greater and more authoritative roles in the Catholic Church, but he does not want to “clericalize” them by reducing such growth to mimicking jobs done by men. Nonetheless, he highlighted that there should be zero tolerance when it comes to such things. Pope Benedict XVI abided to strict religious tradition.
The Pope told La Croix that the resignation of the archbishop of Lyon, who is “a good and devoted man”, would be “a mistake, an imprudence”. Deaconesses in the early Church were a fact: they existed and there is reference to them in numerous documents dating back even to the Apostolic period.
” “Pope Francis is a master at playing to the crowd”. “That is not the case for other elements who are a little unusual, such as Bishop (Richard) Williamson or others who have been radicalized. Leaving this aside, I believe, as I said in Argentina, that they are Catholics on the way to full communion”.
Advertisement
He added: “Therefore, on the diaconate, yes, I accept and it seems useful to me that a commission should clarify this well, especially in regard to the early times of the Church”. But before arriving at structural solutions, “it will be necessary to establish a fundamental agreement with them”. The Second Vatican Council has its value.
