Pope covers Ukraine, China, women, abortion, dissent in new interview
November 28, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: Pope Francis spoke about Ukraine, abortion, divisions within the Church, women’s ordination, and the Vatican’s diplomatic relations with China, in a wide-ranging interview with the editors of America magazine.
Asked why he has not explicitly blamed Russia for invading Ukraine, the Pope replied: “Why do I not name Putin? Because it is not necessary; it is already known.”
On China he said: “With China I have opted for the way of dialogue. It is slow, it has its failures, it has its successes, but I cannot find another way.”
Responding to a question about women who feel a call to priestly ordination, the Pope spoke at some length about the Petrine and Marian principles of the Church. Women cannot be ordained to priestly ministry, he explained, because “the Petrine principle has no place for that.”
Pope Francis said that abortion is a pastoral problem, and insisted—as he has frequently in the past—that bishops should not politicize the issue. But he underlined his own firm stance against the practice. Science makes it clear beyond reasonable dispute, he remarked, that upon conception “there is a living human being. I do not say a person, because this is debated, but a living human being.”
On divisions within the Church, the Pontiff suggested that they may reflect the work of the Holy Spirit:
If we see how the Holy Spirit acts; it first causes disorder: think of the morning of Pentecost, and the confusion and mess (lío) it created there, and then it brings about harmony.The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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