Top 14 quotes from Pope Francis, "2013 Person of theYear"
…Prioritizing the
Catholic social doctrine of serving the poor and feeding the hungry, Pope
Francis said, in a June 14 address to the
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, that the Catholic and
Episcopal churches share this mission:
1) "Among our tasks as witnesses to
the love of Christ is that of giving a voice to the cry of the poor, so that
they are not abandoned to the laws of an economy that seems at times to treat
people as mere consumers."
The pope
expressed concern for immigrants July 7 in a homily on Italy's Lampedusa
island, three months later, a rickety boat full of immigrants from
Ghana, Somalia and Eritrea, sank off the coast of Lampedusa,
killing more than 100 men, women and children:
2) "These our brothers and sisters
seek to leave difficult situations in order to find a little serenity and
peace, they seek a better place for themselves and for their families - but
they found death. How many times to those who seek this not find understanding,
do not find welcome, do not find solidarity!"
Returning to the
Vatican from Brazil, Francis spoke with journalists on the papal
airplane, July 29, and made world headlines when he said:
3) "If a person is gay and seeks the
Lord and has good will, well who am I to judge them?"
Again, in September,
the pope made global news when he said the church has been too
"obsessed" with issues of abortion, contraception and gay marriage.
The following quotes come from the English translation of his wide-ranging and
lengthy interview, published Sept. 30 in the Jesuit journal,
America:
4) "We cannot insist only on issues
related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods ... The
church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a
disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently ... We have to find
a new balance ..."
5) "Those who today always look for
disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal
'security,' those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists -
they have a static and inward-directed view of things."
6) "Women are asking deep questions
that must be addressed. The church cannot be herself without the woman and her
role. The woman is essential for the church. Mary, a woman, is more important
than the bishops."
(Yet
Francis also said the door is closed on women becoming ordained.)
Pope Francis made
the following comments during a dialog with Eugenio Scalfari,
founder of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica,
translated to English, Oct. 1. The dialog covered many topics, from politics to
Marxism to the pope's favorite saints. La Repubblica is considered a
progressive-left newspaper, and Scalfari is a well-known atheist.
7) "I also had a teacher for whom I
had a lot of respect and developed a friendship and who was a fervent
communist. She often read Communist Party texts to me and gave them to me to
read. So I also got to know that very materialistic conception. I remember that
she also gave me the statement from the American Communists in defense of the
Rosenbergs, who had been sentenced to death. The woman I'm talking about was
later arrested, tortured and killed by the dictatorship then ruling in
Argentina. Her materialism had no hold over me. But learning about it through a
courageous and honest person was helpful. I realized a few things, an aspect of
the social, which I then found in the social doctrine of the Church."
8) "The real trouble is that those
most affected by [an excessive love for oneself] - which is actually a kind of
mental disorder - are people who have a lot of power. Often bosses are
narcissists."
9) "I think so-called unrestrained
[economic] liberalism only makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker and
excludes the most excluded. We need great freedom, no discrimination, no
demagoguery and a lot of love. We need rules of conduct and also, if necessary,
direct intervention from the state to correct the more intolerable
inequalities."
On Nov. 25, the
pope again made headlines with his Apostolic Exhortation,
which included a sharp condemnation of the capitalist economy.
10) "How can it be that it is not a news item
when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock
market loses two points?"
11) "The thirst for power and
possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything
which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the
environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which
become the only rule."
12) "No to a financial system, which
rules rather than serves. Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and
a rejection of God."
13) "We are far from the so called 'end
of history,' since the conditions for a sustainable and peaceful development
have not yet been adequately articulated and realized."
Reacting to
right-wingers who criticized him by labeling him "Marxist," Pope
Francis said in an interview with Italian daily La
Stampa, Dec. 15 that Marxism is wrong, but:
14) "I have met many Marxists in my
life who are good people, so I do not feel offended."
Source: People’s World on Line:
http://peoplesworld.org/top-14-quotes-from-pope-francis-2013-person-of-the-year/
Posted by Tom
Connolly
