VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Dec. 7, 2014 NCR Today
A new wide-ranging interview with Pope Francis was released Sunday, in which the pontiff talks frankly about October’s controversial Synod of Bishops, the demotion of U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, and the upcoming reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.
The new interview, published in several parts by the Argentine daily La Nacion, also finds the pontiff revealing new personal details about himself and how he sees his papal ministry.
Saying that before his election as pope in March 2013 he was in the process of retiring, Francis even says in the interview that he was thinking about using his retirement to hear confessions at churches in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“When I came here [to Rome] I had to start all over again, all this was new,” says the pope. “From the start I said to myself: ‘Jorge, don´t change, just keep on being yourself, because to change at your age would be to make a fool of yourself.’ …
Francis’ baptismal name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
Asked about U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who Francis recently moved from his former position as the head of the Vatican’s highest court to a position with the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta, Francis says he and Burke spoke about making the change together before the October Synod of Bishops.
On that issue, the pope states:
One day Cardinal Burke asked me what he would be doing as he had still not been confirmed in his position, in the legal sector, but rather had been confirmed donec alitur provideatur.
And I answered, “Give me some time because we are thinking of a legal restructuring….
I told him nothing had been done about it yet and that it was being considered. After that the issue of the Order of Malta cropped up and we needed a smart American who would know how to get around and I thought of him for that position.
I suggested this to him long before the synod. I said to him “This will take place after the synod because I want you to participate in the synod as dicastery Head.” As the chaplain of Malta he wouldn´t have been able to be present.
He thanked me in very good terms and accepted my offer, I even think he liked it. Because he is a man that gets around a lot, he does a lot of travelling and would surely be busy there. It is therefore not true that I removed him because of how he had behaved in the synod.
Asked about the synod itself, Francis says that the bishops at the synod did not talk specifically about same-sex marriage, but how to accompany gay people.
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