Pope Francis denied absolution only once, Argentine journalist writes
May 02, 2025
Silvina Premat, the reporter assigned by the Argentine newspaper La Nación to cover the future Pope Francis from 2005 to 2013, paid tribute to the late Pontiff in a Vatican newspaper article.
Premat recalled that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio declined to give newspaper interviews, so she attended as many public events as possible at which the Buenos Aires archbishop appeared. After learning that Cardinal Bergoglio would meet privately in his office with anyone who asked, she met with him there between 2007 and 2013.
She recounted:
He spoke bluntly about anything that was asked of him, but before starting to speak he pressed a button on the wall that interfered with an antenna with which the government secret services tried to spy on him.
I discovered that, among other things, Bergoglio was trying to make the Church less clerical and more aware of the action of the Holy Spirit within it, that in that same office he heard the confessions of homosexual men and that in his 38 years of priesthood up to then he had denied absolution in only one case: to “a proud and obstinate person,” he said.
He admitted that the Church, even in Argentina, was holy and a meretrix and that among Catholics there were cases of simony. He was moved by the faith of the poor and admired the expressive creativity of popular religiosity. In short, Bishop Bergoglio’s heart beat for the same things that the heart of the Holy Father Francis would later beat for.
Although he did not give interviews—he said he did not feel prepared to answer journalists—he was attentive to our work and our personal life to the point of greeting us on our birthday or taking an interest in our health. He also took the initiative to thank us for some article and always made jokes that shocked his family and strangers.
“He was the best spiritual director that humanity could have in this era, whose intercession we will insistently ask for because, as he taught us, prayer is powerful,” she concluded.
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