“I am frightened of a bloodbath in Venezuela”, Pope Francis told reporters on the flight from Panama to Rome on Jan. 27.
It was the most significant comment he made in a 47 minute press conference in which he answered a wide range of questions, including his expectations for the Feb. 21-24 summit on the protection of children and the eradication of abuse in the church, the possibility of ordaining mature married men (viri probati) as priests, the need for sexual education in school, the issue of migration and an evaluation of his visit to Panama.
Earlier on Sunday, after reciting the Angelus at the Casa el Buen Samaritano in Panama, Pope Francis spoke for the first time about Venezuela since the dramatic turn of events in the country on Jan. 23 when the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, declared himself the interim president of the country until new elections are held, and rejected the illegitimate presidency of Nicolás Maduro.
At Casa el Buen Samaritano, the pope said he “felt close” to the Venezuelan people and called for “a just and peaceful solution, that respects human rights” for the grave situation in which the country is in.
During the airborne press conference, Francis was asked to explain what he meant with these words. He was told that the Venezuelans want to know what he means. “[Does it mean) to support Juan Guaido and free elections?” He was also told that “the people feel you are a Latin American pope and want to feel your support.”
“I support the entire Venezuelan people that is suffering. If I were to enter and say do this to those countries, or to other countries, I would put myself in a role that I do not know. It would be a pastoral imprudence on my part, and would do damage.”
Aware of the very delicate and tense political situation and the impact his declarations could have in Venezuela, a majority Catholic country, Francis weighed his words carefully and then declared: “I support the entire Venezuelan people that is suffering. If I were to enter and say do this to those countries, or to other countries, I would put myself in a role that I do not know. It would be a pastoral imprudence on my part, and would do damage.”
Indeed, he said, “to get them to agree is not enough. [It requires] a just and peaceful solution. I am terrified of a bloodbath. And here I ask something great of those who can help to resolve the problem.”
Perhaps speaking from his personal experience during the “dirty war” in Argentina when the military were in power, Francis went onto state that “the problem of violence frightens me.” He said that “after all the effort made in Colombia, what happened in the academy of the cadets on Jan. 17 is terrifying.”
Then in a somewhat enigmatic remark, Francis said, “I don’t like a balanced word,” which seemed to mean “words” that give the impression of being equidistant from both sides but in reality resolve nothing.
He concluded by declaring, “I have to be a pastor. And if they need help, let them agree and ask for it.”
The Possibility of Ordaining Married Men (Viri Probati) As Priests
There has been much discussion as to whether Pope Francis might allow the ordination of mature married men to be serve as priests in places such as Amazonia. When asked on the plane whether, following the tradition of the Eastern Catholic churches, he might allow married men to be priests, Pope Francis said:
“In the Eastern Catholic churches, they can do it. They make the choice between celibacy or marrying, before they’re ordained into the diaconate. When it comes to the Latin Rite, however, a phrase said by St. Paul VI comes to mind; he said, ‘I would rather give my life than to change the law on celibacy.’ He said this at an even tougher time [than today] in 1969-1970.”
Pope Francis declared, “Personally, I believe that celibacy is a gift to the Church. Secondly, I’m not in agreement with allowing optional celibacy. No!”
But he added, “there could only be a possibility in these far, faraway places, I think about the islands in the Pacific; it’s something to think about when there’s a pastoral need, there the shepherd has to think about the faithful.”
Pope Francis declared, “Personally, I believe that celibacy is a gift to the Church. Secondly, I’m not in agreement with allowing optional celibacy. No!”
Pope Francis then went onto refer to a book by Bishop Fritz Lobinger, bishop emeritus of Aliwal, South Africa, and said, “he’s interesting, this is a matter of discussion among theologians. It’s not for me to decide.” He concluded emphatically: “I will not do this. I don’t feel like standing in front of God with this decision.”
He recalled that Bishop Lobinger “says the church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the church. In the islands in the Pacific Lobinger [asks], “who makes the Eucharist” in these places? Who leads in these communities? It’s the deacons, the religious sisters or the laity. So Lobinger asks, whether an elder, a married man, could be ordained, but only to perform the sanctifying role: to say Mass, give the sacrament of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick.”
Francis explained that “priestly ordination gives three roles or functions (munus)”—teaching, sanctifying, and governing—“but the bishop could give the license for only one: the sanctifying role. It’s interesting.”
He added significantly “I believe that the question has to be open in this sense. Where there’s a pastoral problem due to the lack of priests, I don’t say this must be done because I have not reflected on it, I have not prayed enough, but it’s something for theologians to study.” He cited as an example of such theologians, Father Lobinger: “a faithful man in South Africa,” and said he used this example “to signify the aspects where this [study] must be done.”
Pope Francis said he had spoken to “a bishop, an official of the Secretariat of State, who lived in a Communist country, and who at the beginning of the revolution in the 1950s, when they saw how the revolution was going, the bishops secretly ordained peasants who were brave, religious men. Thirty years later, however, when the crisis was over, the matter was resolved.” He said the bishop “told me of the emotion he experienced when, during a concelebrated mass when he saw these brothers with farmers hands get dressed to say Mass.” Francis remarked, “in the history of the Church, this happened. It’s something to think about, to pray on.”
At that point, the reporter reminded the pope that his predecessor, Benedict XVI took a decision in relations to Anglican clergy who wanted to become Catholic priests, very many of whom were already married. Pope Francis noted that “the (married) Anglican clergy who became Catholic priests, continued to live in this way as if they were from the Eastern Catholic churches.” He then recalled that at a Wednesday audience “I saw several men with the clergyman dress, and then women and children, some in their arms, and they explained how things were.”
The Vatican’s Sex Abuse Summit on Child Protection
A reporter recalled how at the lunch with young people last Saturday, he spoke to one of them, a young American woman, who spoke about the sex abuse scandal and how many Americans have lost faith with the church over this crisis. In the light of this situation, he asked Francis what hopes he has for the February summit.
Pope Francis responded by disclosing that “the idea (for the February meeting with the presidents of the bishops’ conferences) was born out of the C9,” or the Council of Cardinal Advisors, the group of nine cardinal advisors that he appointed soon after becoming pope. He said the idea emerged, “because we saw that some bishops didn’t understand [the problem] well, or didn’t know what to do or they did something good or something wrong” and so “we felt the responsibility of giving them a ‘catechesis’ on this problem to the bishops’ conferences.” He stated: “that is why we convoked the presidents (of the bishops’ conferences).”
He then went on to explain what would happen at the February summit. There will be “a catechesis” to help them first of all “become conscious, become aware of the tragedy caused when perhaps a boy or a girl has been abused.”
Francis again mentioned the fact that “I regularly receive people who have been abused.” He recalled the case of one person who was 40 years old and who endured “terrible suffering,” so much so that he was unable to pray in all those years. He said he wants the February meeting to ensure that the bishops are aware of the tragedy caused by the abuse.
Secondly, he said, the February meeting wants to make sure “that [the bishops] know what should be done, what the procedures are” when faced with crimes of abuse, “because sometimes the bishop doesn’t know what to do. It is something that has grown strongly and has not arrived at all the angles, so to speak.”
Pope Francis explained that the main thing at the February meeting is that “before thinking about what should be done, they first must be aware.” Then, “there will be prayer, there will be some testimonies so that they may be made aware and some penitential liturgy, to ask forgiveness for the whole church.”
Thirdly, he explained, the summit will ensure that everyone knows the “programs that reach out to all the episcopal conferences” regarding “what should a bishop do, what should an archbishop do as metropolitan, what should the president of the bishops’ conference do.” In juridical terms, he said, “the protocols must be clear.”
He explained that the main thing at the February meeting is that “before thinking about what should be done, they first must be aware.” Then, “there will be prayer, there will be some testimonies so that they may be made aware and some penitential liturgy, to ask forgiveness for the whole church.”
Francis told reporters, in what seemed a reference to the preparatory committee that he established in December, “they are working well on the preparations for this meeting.”
Significantly, however, he sought to lower the expectations for the February meeting. He told reporters: “allow me to say, that I perceived inflated expectations. We have to deflate expectations to these points that I have made because the problem of abuse will continue, it is a human problem, a human problem [that is] everywhere.” He recalled reading a statistic that is “one of those statistics that say 50 percent (of the cases of abuse) have been reported, and of those, 50 – 20 percent are heard…and it ends this way: only 5 percent are condemned. It’s terrible, it’s terrible.”
Pope Francis said abuse “is a human tragedy that we must be made aware of” and “by resolving the problems in the church, by being aware of it” we “will help to resolve it in society, in the families where shame leads to cover up everything.” There are “so many things in society”, by which he seemed to mean cases of abuse, but the first thing is to “be aware” of it, then “have clear protocols and move forward.”
Abortion and the need for mercy
The issue of abortion had been raised in a very strong way at the Way of the Cross at World Youth Day last Friday. Pope Francis was asked about the need for mercy for persons who have had abortions, and he responded:
“The message of mercy is for everyone, also for the human being that is the developing child. It is for everyone.” He said that “after having carried out this failure, there is mercy as well. But a difficult mercy because the problem is that of forgiving, the problem is that of helping, accompanying the woman who understands and is aware of what she has done by aborting.” He added: “we are talking about terrible traumas.”
He told reporters that he had once heard a doctor expounding the theory, “that a cell of the fetus that has just been conceived goes into the bone marrow of the woman and in doing so forms something that is like a physical memory.” While “this is just a theory,” what about “a mother that stops to think about what she has done.” He added, “to tell the truth, you need to be in the confessional” to understand this, “and there you find yourself in the position of having to console.” Then alluding to the fact that he has given every priest the faculty to forgive a woman who has committed abortion, Francis disclosed that “this,” meaning his experience in confession and the need to console, “is why I have opened up to the possibility of absolving the abortion through mercy.”
Then, he said something that reporters had never heard him say before, referring to women who have aborted: “They need to rejoin their child.” Furthermore, he revealed, “I always advise (women), when they call and are desperate, I tell them their child is in heaven, talk to him, I tell them to sing them a lullaby, the lullaby that they had never been able to sing. Here they find a path for reconciliation, between mother and child, with the forgiveness of God. God is all forgiving. Mercy also means helping the woman live through this trauma.”
The need for sex education in school
In Panama and in many other countries, young girls become pregnant, and a reporter asked Francis what should be done about this, and the need for sexual education of children and minors.
In response, Pope Francis said, “There needs to be sex education in schools. Sex is a gift from God. It’s not the ‘boogieman.’ It’s a gift from God for love. Some use it to earn money and to exploit others, and that’s a problem. But there has to be objective sex education, without an ideological colonization. If, from the get-go you give sex education filled with ideological colonization, it destroys the person. But sex as a gift from God that needs to be taught. Not in a strict fashion, take the best from it and accompany the person in the journey.”
He said, “the problem is with those responsible of the education, at the national or local level. What books do teachers choose? I see this in terms of a vegetable. There are vegetables that ripen and things that go bad.”
Since the question was specifically related to Panama, Francis said, “I don’t get into the politics in Panama”, but speaking generally he emphasized, “There needs to be sex education for youth.”
He said that “ideally it should start at home, with the parents.” At the same time, he recognized that “it’s not always possible because there are many family situations. Or because they don’t know how to do it. Schools are there to supplement that; if not any ideology will fill that void.”
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