VATICAN CITY
La Nacion (Argentina)
Por Elisabetta Piqué
ROME.- “God is good to me, he has bestowed on me a healthy dose of unawareness. I just do what I have to do. 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'”.
These are some of the things Pope Francis said, as spontaneous as ever, during the exclusive interview with the argentine newspaper LA NACION almost 21 months after he was elected Pope.
Though he certainly does not look it, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires will be 78 next December 17. He said the reform of the Roman Curia will not be ready next year, as had been initially anticipated. He also admitted that ¨there still is a long way to go” to complete the cleansing work in the Vatican and spoke very naturally about the resistance he faces, which he said does not worry him.
“Certain resistance has surfaced; I think it´s a good sign when things are discussed openly and not secretly if people don´t agree. It´s good to discuss things openly, it´s healthy”, he said in a 50 minute interview last Thursday, in suite 201 of the second floor of casa Santa Martha, in the Vatican, his home ever since he ascended to the throne of St. Peter on March 13, 2013.
In spite of his very busy day, with appointments and audiences from early morning hours, Francis (who has not lost his accent or his typical Buenos Aires ways) was friendly, in a good mood and laid back.
He did not dodge any sensitive issue, such as the controversies of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family which took place last October. This General Assembly allowed in-house divisions to surface -differences in opinion about how to face certain challenges, such as the issue of catholics who have divorced and remarried, who the Pope defined as “excommunicated in fact”. “The German Cardinal Walter Kasper said we should look for hypothesis, that is, he paved the way. And some people got frightened”, he explained.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.