On 29 September, Pope Francis returned to Rome after visiting Luxembourg and Belgium. On the return flight he answered questions about sexual abuse, the Middle East, the role of women and defended his desire to beatify Belgian King Baudouin.
Below is the full text published by Vatican News.
Good evening everyone, thank you Your Holiness for taking the time to dedicate to us at the end of this short but very intense journey. Perhaps you would like to say a few words to us before we begin with the questions from the journalists.
Pope Francis:
Good morning and I am available for questions
Holy Father, Luxembourg was the first country and many people remember your visit to the Expresso bar. I would like to ask you what your impressions of Luxembourg are and if there is anything that surprised you.
Pope Francis:
Thank you, the bar is a joke. Next up is the pizzeria. Luxembourg impressed me a lot as a balanced society, with balanced laws, and also a different culture. That impressed me a lot, because I didn’t know it. Belgium, on the other hand, I knew because I’ve been there several times. But Luxembourg was a surprise, because of the balance, the welcome, it’s something that surprised me. I think that perhaps the message that Luxembourg can give to Europe is precisely this.
Valerie Dupont, French-speaking Belgian public TV:
Holy Father, thank you for your availability. Excuse my voice, but the rain has affected me a little. Your words about the tomb of King Baudouin caused a bit of amazement in Belgium…
Pope Francis:
But you know that wonder is the beginning of philosophy and that’s fine.
Valerie Dupont:
Perhaps. Some also saw it as political interference in the democratic life of Belgium. The process of the king’s beatification is linked to his position. And how can we reconcile the right to life, the defence of life, and also the right of women to live a life free from suffering?
Pope Francis: Everything is life, eh. The king was brave because he did not sign a law of death and resigned. That requires courage, doesn’t it? It takes a politician with ‘guts’ to do that. It takes courage. He also gave a message with this and he also did it because he was a saint. He is not yet a saint, but the process of beatification will continue, because we have had proof of it.
Women. Women have the right to life: to their own life, to the life of their children. Let us not forget to say this: an abortion is murder. Science tells you that in the month of conception all the organs are already there… You kill a human being. And the doctors who lend themselves to this are – let me use the word – hitmen. They are hitmen. And that cannot be disputed. A human life is being killed. And women have the right to protect life. Contraceptive methods are another matter. There must be no confusion. I am only talking about abortion now. And that cannot be debated. Forgive me, but it is the truth.
Andrea Vreede, Belgian Flemish and Dutch TV:
Your Holiness, during this trip to Belgium you also had a long meeting with a group of victims of sexual abuse. Their accounts often contain cries of despair at the lack of transparency in the proceedings, the closed doors, the silence towards them, the slowness of disciplinary measures, the cover-ups you spoke of today, the problems regarding compensation for the damage suffered. In the end, things only seem to change when they are able to speak to you, in person. In Brussels, the victims also presented a series of demands. How do you intend to proceed with these demands? And would it not be better, perhaps, to create a special department in the Vatican, an independent body perhaps, as some bishops are asking, to better deal with this scourge in the Church and restore the trust of the faithful?
Pope Francis:
Thank you. The last one… There is a department in the Vatican, eh. There is a structure, the president is now a Colombian bishop for cases of abuse. There is a Commission and Cardinal O’Malley created it. That works! And all things are received in the Vatican and discussed. I have also received the abused in the Vatican and I give strength to move forward. This is the first thing. The second, I have listened to the abused. I think it is a duty. Some say: statistics say that 40-42-46% of the abused are in the family and in the neighborhood, only 3% in the Church. That doesn’t matter to me, I stay with those who are in the Church! We have the responsibility to help the abused and take care of them. Some need psychological treatment, we have to help them with that. There is also talk of compensation because in civil law there is. In civil law I think it is 50,000 euros in Belgium, it is too little. It is not something that is needed. I think that is the figure, but I am not sure. But we have to take care of the abused and punish the abusers, because abuse is not a sin of today that may not exist tomorrow… It is a tendency, it is a psychiatric illness and that is why they have to be treated and controlled in this way. You cannot leave an abuser free in normal life, with responsibilities in parishes and schools. Some bishops, after the trial and the conviction, gave priests who did this work, for example in the library, but no contact with children in schools, in parishes. But we have to continue with this. I told the Belgian bishops not to be afraid and to continue. Shame is covering up, that is shame.
Courtney Walsh, pool Tv USA:
Thank you very much for your time. We read this morning that 900 kg bombs were dropped in a targeted assassination of Nasrallah. There are more than a thousand displaced people, many dead. Do you think Israel has gone further against Lebanon and Gaza? And how can this be resolved? Is there any message for the people there?
Pope Francis:
Every day I call the parish in Gaza. There are more than 600 people there, parish and school, and they tell me about the things that happen, even the cruelties that occur there. I don’t really understand what they tell me. But the defense must always be proportional to the attack. When there is something disproportionate, it shows a dominant tendency that goes beyond morality. A country that does these things with its forces – I mean any country – that does these things in such a “superlative” way, these are immoral actions. Even in war there is a morality to protect. War is immoral, but the rules of war imply a certain morality. But when this is not done, we see – we say in Argentina – “bad blood.”
Annachiara Valle, Christian Family:
Thank you, Your Holiness. Yesterday, after the meeting at the Catholic University of Louvain, a statement was issued in which, I read, “the University deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society.” They say that it is a bit restrictive to speak of women only in terms of motherhood, fertility, and care, which is actually a bit discriminatory because it is a role that also corresponds to men. And linked to this, both universities raised the question of ordained ministries in the Church.
Pope Francis:
First of all, this statement was made at the time I was speaking. It was made in advance and this is not moral. I always speak of the dignity of women and I said something that I cannot say about men: the Church is a woman, she is the wife of Jesus. To masculinize the Church, to masculinize women is not human, it is not Christian. The feminine has its own strength. In fact, women – I always say – are more important than men, because the Church is a woman, the Church is the wife of Jesus. If this seems conservative to these ladies, I am Carlo Gardell (famous Argentine tango singer, ed.). It is not understood… I see that there is an obtuse mind that does not want to hear about this. Women are equal to men, moreover, in the life of the Church women are superior, because the Church is a woman. In the ministry, the mysticism of women is superior to the ministry. There is a great theologian who has made studies on this: what 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 motherhood of women. The ministry is a very minor ministry, given to accompany the faithful, always within motherhood. Various theologians have studied this and say that this is real, I don’t say modern, but real. It is not old-fashioned. The exaggerated feminism that wants to say that women are sexist does not work. It is one thing for sexism to go wrong and another thing for feminism to go wrong. What is going is the woman Church that is greater than the priestly ministry. And this is sometimes not thought about.
But thank you for the question. And thank you all for this trip, for the work you have done. I am sorry that time here is short. But thank you, thank you very much. I pray for you, you pray for me. Pray for me, eh!
(The Pope recalls the tragedy of the fifty people lost at sea off the Canary Islands)
It pains me to see these people lost in the Canary Islands. Today, many emigrants seeking freedom are lost at sea or near it. Let’s think of Crotone, right? 100 metres away… (your land). Let’s think of there. We must mourn this.