He talks about abortion, abuse, the war in Lebanon and the one in Gaza, the women and migrants who died at sea, in the Canary Islands, on the very day that the Church dedicates to refugees. Pope Francis, on the return flight from the trip to Luxembourg and Belgium he answers the journalists’ questions and, on the controversy following his meeting at the university, he attacks: «A document already written against me before I spoke, this is not moral».
He starts from the journalists of the countries visited, as is customary, and, regarding his coffee at the bar which the Luxembourg press talks about, he says that «the one at the bar is a joke. The next one will be the pizzeria.” The place, however, impressed him «as a well-balanced society, with well-balanced laws, even another culture. This impressed me a lot, because I didn’t know Belgium, however», he adds, «I knew him because I came several times. But Luxembourg was a surprise: for the balance, the welcome, it surprised me” and he hopes that this balance can be “the message that Luxembourg can give to Europe”.
He does not shy away from the confrontation even when the Belgian journalist asks him if his speaking openly against abortion was “a political interference in the democratic life of Belgium” and how can it be done to reconcile the right to life, the defense of life , and also the right of women to have a life without suffering.” Francis reiterates, while recalling that King Baudouin, whose beatification process he hoped for, had courage, «a politician “with trousers”», in resigning so as not to sign this «death law» that “women have the right to life: to their life, to the life of their children”. But «let’s not forget to say this: an abortion is murder. Science tells you that in the month of conception all the organs are already there… A human being is killed. And the doctors who lend themselves to this are – allow me the word – hitmen. They are hitmen. And there’s no arguing with this: a human life is being killed. And women have the right to protect life.” He makes a distinction, but does not talk about it, with «contraceptive methods, this is another thing. Don’t confuse. I speak now only about abortion. And there’s no arguing with that. Sorry, but it’s the truth.”
He takes up the topic of clergy abuse of minors to underline that the Commission created by Cardinal O’Malley “works”. And he tells how he too meets the victims in the Vatican and tries to encourage them. «I listened to the abused. I believe it is a duty. Some say: statistics say that 40-42-46% of those abused are in the family and in the neighborhood, only 3% in the Church. I don’t care about that. I take the ones from the Church! We have a responsibility to help the abused and take care of them. Some need psychological treatment, we need to help them with this. We also talk about compensation because it exists in civil law. In civil law I think it’s 50 thousand euros in Belgium, it’s too low. It’s not something that is needed. I think that’s the figure but I’m not sure. But we must take care of abused people and punish abusers, because abuse is not a sin of today that perhaps won’t exist tomorrow… It’s a trend, it’s a psychiatric disease and that’s why we need to put them in treatment and control them like this. An abuser cannot be left free in normal life, with responsibilities in parishes and schools. Some bishops gave the priests who did this, after the trial and conviction, work for example in the library, but without contact with children in schools or parishes. But we have to get on with this. I told the Belgian bishops not to be afraid and to move forward, forward. Shame is covering up, yes this is shame.”
Remaining in the topics addressed in Belgium, Pope Francis addressed the accusations received from the University of Louvain which «deplored Pope Francis’ conservative positions on the role of women in society». «This statement, he clearly says, «was pre-made and this is not moral. On women, I always talk about the dignity of women and I said something that I cannot say about men: “the Church is woman, she is the bride of Jesus”. Masculinising the Church, masculinising women is not human, it is not Christian. The feminine has its own strength. Indeed, women – I always say this – are more important than men, because the Church is woman, the Church is the bride of Jesus. If this seems conservative to those ladies, I am Carlo Gardell (a well-known tango singer from the 1950s, ed.). It’s not clear… I see that there is a dull mind that doesn’t want to hear about this.”
The Pope explains that «woman is equal to man, indeed, in the life of the Church woman is superior, because the Church is woman. In the ministry, the mysticism of the woman is greater than the ministry. There is a great theologian who has done studies on this: who is greater, the Petrine ministry or the Marian ministry? The Marian ministry is greater because it is a ministry of unity that involves, the other is a ministry of leadership. The motherhood of the Church is a woman’s motherhood. The ministry is a very minor ministry, given to accompany the faithful, always within motherhood. Various theologians have studied this and saying this is a real thing, I won’t say modern, but real. It’s not outdated. An exaggerated feminism that means that women are chauvinistic does not work. It’s one thing that machismo isn’t right, it’s another thing that feminism isn’t right. What goes is the female Church that is greater than the priestly ministry. And you don’t think about this sometimes.”
He does not neglect international politics and on the targeted assassination of Nasrallah, on the more than a thousand displaced people, on the hundreds of deaths he recalls that «the defense must always be proportionate to the attack. When there is something disproportionate, a dominating tendency appears that goes beyond morality. A country that does these things by force – I’m talking about any country – that does these things in such a “superlative” way, are immoral actions. Even in war there is a morality to be safeguarded. War is immoral, but the rules of war imply some morality. But when this is not done, we see – we say in Argentina – “bad blood”.
Many migrants also escape from wars. The Pope concludes the press conference with sorrow for «those people missing on the Canary Islands. Today many, many migrants seeking freedom are lost at or near the sea. Let’s think about Crotone, right? TO 100 meters… Let’s think about there. This is something to cry about, this is something to cry about.
