Francis: "I Deserve Detractors"
He said it not me....
Francis deserves to be called out for the heretical hypocritical charlatan that he is. NOBODY ought be following this antipope who is leading souls in the formalized New Age Religion.
I am allergic to flatterers, I deserve detractors
In an interview with TV2000 and InBlue Radio, which is being
broadcast at 9 pm on Sunday 20 November, Francis talks about the fruits
of the Jubilee, his most vivid memory of the "Mercy Fridays", the
relationship between mercy and justice, the "temptations" a Pope faces,
the "grace" of humour and the secret to managing one's commitments
without getting stressed...
Francis' first interview with an Italian television channel was granted
to TV2000 and InBlu Radio, the Italian Episcopal Conference's
broadcasters. In a 40-minute question and answer session, the Pope
speaks to web and news directors Paolo Ruffini and Lucio Brunelli, about
his reflections on the fruits of the Extraordinary Holy Year, which he
describes as "a blessing from the Lord", on the changes the Church needs
to undergo, on the idolatry of money and attention towards the poor. A
brief preview of the interview was aired after the special reports on
the ceremony for the closing of the Holy Door. The interview in full
will be broadcast by TV2000 and InBlu Radio at 9 pm on Sunday 20
November.
The "blessing" of the Jubilee
"I can only report the news that's been coming from all around the world. The fact that the Jubilee was not just celebrated in Rome but in very diocese in the world, in the cathedrals and churches the bishop had indicated, universalised the Jubilee a bit. And it did a great deal of good. Because the whole Church experienced this Jubilee, there was a Jubilee atmosphere. The diocese have reported people approaching the Church again and encountering Jesus: it was a blessing from the Lord (...) It is an ecclesial line where mercy is, I wouldn't say discovered because it has always been there, but strongly proclaimed: it is like a need. A need that is good in a world afflicted by the illness of a throwaway culture, the illness of a closed heart, of selfishness. Because it opened up people's hearts and many people were able to encounter Jesus."
"Mercy Fridays", exploited girls
"I visited girls who had been rescued from prostitution. I remember one African girl, she was beautiful, very young and had been taken advantage of - she was pregnant -, beaten and tortured: 'You must go and work', she was told... And as she recounted her story - there were 15 girls there each of whom shared their stories with me - she said to me: "Father, I gave birth in the winter, in the street. Alone. On my own. My baby girl died:" They had forced her to work up until that day because if she didn't make her exploiters a lot of money she was beaten and even tortured. Another girl had had her ear cut off... And I thought not only about the exploiters but also those who pay the girls: don't these people know that their moment of sexual satisfaction means their money is going towards helping the exploiters?"
The "dreadful crime" of abortion
"That same day I went to visit the maternity ward at Rome's San Giovanni hospital and there was a woman there crying, she cried and cried in front of her little twins... so small and so beautiful: the third one had died. There had been three but one of them died. And she was crying for the child she had lost as she caressed the two that lived. The gift of life... And I thought of the children who are gotten rid of before they are even born, this dreadful crime: they are gotten rid of because it's better that way, because it makes things easier, it's a big responsibility - it's a very serious sin isn't it? - it's a big responsibility. She had three children, she wept fro the one who had died, she was unable to find consolation in the other two who were still living. Love for life is important in every situation."
God's greatest enemy is money
"We are the ones who make up the Church as an institution; we are the community. God's greatest - greatest! - enemy, is money. If you think about it, Jesus gives money lord's status, master's status when he says: "No one cans erve two masters, two lords: God and money." God and wealth- He doesn't say God and - I don't know - disease or Hod and something else: he says money. Because money is an idol. We see it now, in this world where it seem money pulls the strings. Money is an instrument that is there to serve and poverty is at the heart of the Gospel, Jesus speaks of this clash: two lords, two masters. I either follow one or the other. Do I follow this one, He is my Father? Or do I follow this other master who puts me in chains? The truth is this: the devil always enters through people's pockets, always. It's his way in. We need to fight to create a poor Church for the poor, according to the Gospel (...) St. Ignatius teaches us in the exercises that there are two hurdles: the first one is wealth, which begins to corrupt our soul; then, vanity, soap bubbles, a vain life that's all about appearances and then there is arrogance and pride. And this is where all sins stem from. But the first hurdle is money, the lack of poverty."
The temptations a Pope faces
"The temptations the Pope faces are the same as those of any other person, any other human. The devil always manages to work out what our weaknesses are and uses these to worm his way in: impatience, selfishness, a bit of laziness... And temptations accompany us right up until the very last moment don't they? The saitns were tempted right until the very last moment and St. Therese of the Child Jesus said we need to pray a gerat deal for those on their deathbed because the devil unleashes a storm of temptations in that moment."
Life sentences are death sentences "in disguise"
"Whe I have a moment, I try to telephone the prisoners I have met. I have this feeling inside me: why them and not me? The Lord has enough reasons to send me to prison and he closed a blind eye... to the start of so many bad things in my life that if the Lord had taken his eye off me... And then, there's a thought many of us have: that person's in prison because they did something bad: they need to pay. Prison as a means of punishment. This is not good. Prison is like a 'purgatory' to prepare for re-integration. there is no real sentence without hope. If a sentence offers no hope then it is not a Christian sentence, it is not human. This is why the death penalty is not acceptable. Yes, you may say to me, but in the 15th and 16th centuries they killed criminals, issuing the death sentence with the hope of going to heaven, there was a chaplain who sent you to heaven. I am thinking of the great Fr. Cafasso there at the gallows. but this was another anthropology, a different culture. We cannot think like this today. Life sentences are so cold, they are death sentences in disguise. But what happens when a person cannot be guaranteed reintegration due to their mental state? There are forms of reintegration through work, culture, that involves some form of confinement but they need to be made to feel of use to society whilst being kept under surveillance, but their soul changes: this is no longer a person who has committed a crime, a criminal, but someone who has turned their life around and is doing something in prison that allows them to reintegrate and they feel a different form of dignity."
The grace of humour
"A sense of humour is a grace I ask for every day and I pray that beautiful prayer by St. Thomas More: 'Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humour'; I ask for the ability to laugh when I'm told a joke...: it's a beautiful prayer. Because a sense of humour is uplifting, it helps you to see the provisional element of life and to take things with the lightness of a liberated spirit. It is a human attitude but it is the attitude closest to God's grace. I once met a priest - a great priest, a great pastor - who had a great sense of humour but he did a great deal of good with that too, because he relativised things: "God is the Absolute but he can sort himself out, it's doable... don't worry..." (...) It's that capacity to be a child before God. Praise the Lord with a smile and a tasteful joke."
I am alergic to flatterers, I deserve detractors
"I am alergic to flatterers. It comes naturally eh? Flattery is not a virtue. Flattering another person is to use antoher perosn for a hidden or obvious reason but it is used to obtain something for oneself. It is also shameful. In Argentina we call flatterers "sock lickers" (boot-lickers, Ed.)... When I receive praise, even when it is for something that has gone well, you know straight away when the person praising you is praising God, "that's good, well done, keep up the good work, that's the way it's done!" or whether they are being oleaginous... Detractors speak ill of me and I deserve it because I am a sinner: that's the way I see it. That doesn't worry me."
The Prodigal Son's elder brother and rigidity
"The elder son was morally rigid: 'He spent all his money on a life of sin, he doesn't deserve to be welcomed'. Rigidity means always adopting the role of a judge. This rigidity is not typical of Jesus. Jesus reproaches the doctors of the church, he is very much against rigidity. There is an adjective that describes such people, which I would not like to have directed at me: hypocrits. Just read chapter 23 of Matthew's Gospel: "Hypocrit". These people theorise about mercy saying justice is important. In God - and in Christians since it is in God - justice is merciful and mercy is just. The two go hand in hand: they are one thing (...) After the sermon on the Mount, in Luke's Gospel, comes the sermon on the Plain. And how does it end? Be emrciful like the father. It does not say: be just like the Father. But it's the same thing! Justice and mercy in God are one thing. Mercy is just and justice is merciful. The two cannot be separated. When Jesus forgives Zaccheus and has lunch with sinners, forgives Mary Magdalene, gorgives the adulterous woman, forgives the Samaritan, what is he? Overgenerous? No. He is imparting God's justice, which is merciful."
The disease of "cardiosclerosis"
"I will use a word I learnt from an elderly priest (...) He taught me a word about the disease of this world, of this era, of this time: cardiosclerosis. I believe mercy is a remedy against this disease, which is the root cause of this throwaway culture: 'We don't need him or her, this elderly person, send them to the old age home; this child that's on the way, no, no, no, return to sender..." and so these people are discarded. 'No, we need to drag this city into the war, and what about that other one?' -'Oh yes, let's drop bombs wherever, on hospitals, schools'."
For a more merciful world
Think about this third world war we are experiencing, this piecemeal third world war; arms are sold and they are sold by manufacturers and arms traffickers. And they are sold to both sides int he war because there's a lot of money to be made through arms trafficking... Here there is a serious hardheartedness, tenderness is lacking. 'But, God...": Let us pause there. God became tender, he approached us. Paul says to the Philippians: "Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,being made in human likeness." When we speak of Christ, let us not forget the flesh of Christ. This world needs this tenderness that tells the flesh to touch the suffering flesh of Christ and put an end to suffering! I think warring States need to take stock of the fact that a life is worth a great deal, instead of saying': 'But one life doesn't count for anything, I'm interested in the territory, this is what I'm interested in..." A life is worth more than territory!"
The secret to keeping up with endless commitments
"I don't know how I manage, but... I pray: This helps me a great deal. I pray. Prayer helps me, it means being with the Lord. I celebrate mass, I pray the Breviary, I speak with the Lord, pray the rosary... I find prayer very helpful. It also helps me sleep well: this is a grace from the Lord. I sleep like a log. The day the earthquake struck I didn't feel a thing eh? Everyone felt the bed tremble... No, really, I sleep six hours but like a log. Maybe this helps me in terms of my health. I have my own share of problems you know? I have a problem with my spinal column but it's ok at the moment. I do what I can, I don't overexert myself: in that sense, I do pace myself a bit."
The "blessing" of the Jubilee
"I can only report the news that's been coming from all around the world. The fact that the Jubilee was not just celebrated in Rome but in very diocese in the world, in the cathedrals and churches the bishop had indicated, universalised the Jubilee a bit. And it did a great deal of good. Because the whole Church experienced this Jubilee, there was a Jubilee atmosphere. The diocese have reported people approaching the Church again and encountering Jesus: it was a blessing from the Lord (...) It is an ecclesial line where mercy is, I wouldn't say discovered because it has always been there, but strongly proclaimed: it is like a need. A need that is good in a world afflicted by the illness of a throwaway culture, the illness of a closed heart, of selfishness. Because it opened up people's hearts and many people were able to encounter Jesus."
"Mercy Fridays", exploited girls
"I visited girls who had been rescued from prostitution. I remember one African girl, she was beautiful, very young and had been taken advantage of - she was pregnant -, beaten and tortured: 'You must go and work', she was told... And as she recounted her story - there were 15 girls there each of whom shared their stories with me - she said to me: "Father, I gave birth in the winter, in the street. Alone. On my own. My baby girl died:" They had forced her to work up until that day because if she didn't make her exploiters a lot of money she was beaten and even tortured. Another girl had had her ear cut off... And I thought not only about the exploiters but also those who pay the girls: don't these people know that their moment of sexual satisfaction means their money is going towards helping the exploiters?"
The "dreadful crime" of abortion
"That same day I went to visit the maternity ward at Rome's San Giovanni hospital and there was a woman there crying, she cried and cried in front of her little twins... so small and so beautiful: the third one had died. There had been three but one of them died. And she was crying for the child she had lost as she caressed the two that lived. The gift of life... And I thought of the children who are gotten rid of before they are even born, this dreadful crime: they are gotten rid of because it's better that way, because it makes things easier, it's a big responsibility - it's a very serious sin isn't it? - it's a big responsibility. She had three children, she wept fro the one who had died, she was unable to find consolation in the other two who were still living. Love for life is important in every situation."
God's greatest enemy is money
"We are the ones who make up the Church as an institution; we are the community. God's greatest - greatest! - enemy, is money. If you think about it, Jesus gives money lord's status, master's status when he says: "No one cans erve two masters, two lords: God and money." God and wealth- He doesn't say God and - I don't know - disease or Hod and something else: he says money. Because money is an idol. We see it now, in this world where it seem money pulls the strings. Money is an instrument that is there to serve and poverty is at the heart of the Gospel, Jesus speaks of this clash: two lords, two masters. I either follow one or the other. Do I follow this one, He is my Father? Or do I follow this other master who puts me in chains? The truth is this: the devil always enters through people's pockets, always. It's his way in. We need to fight to create a poor Church for the poor, according to the Gospel (...) St. Ignatius teaches us in the exercises that there are two hurdles: the first one is wealth, which begins to corrupt our soul; then, vanity, soap bubbles, a vain life that's all about appearances and then there is arrogance and pride. And this is where all sins stem from. But the first hurdle is money, the lack of poverty."
The temptations a Pope faces
"The temptations the Pope faces are the same as those of any other person, any other human. The devil always manages to work out what our weaknesses are and uses these to worm his way in: impatience, selfishness, a bit of laziness... And temptations accompany us right up until the very last moment don't they? The saitns were tempted right until the very last moment and St. Therese of the Child Jesus said we need to pray a gerat deal for those on their deathbed because the devil unleashes a storm of temptations in that moment."
Life sentences are death sentences "in disguise"
"Whe I have a moment, I try to telephone the prisoners I have met. I have this feeling inside me: why them and not me? The Lord has enough reasons to send me to prison and he closed a blind eye... to the start of so many bad things in my life that if the Lord had taken his eye off me... And then, there's a thought many of us have: that person's in prison because they did something bad: they need to pay. Prison as a means of punishment. This is not good. Prison is like a 'purgatory' to prepare for re-integration. there is no real sentence without hope. If a sentence offers no hope then it is not a Christian sentence, it is not human. This is why the death penalty is not acceptable. Yes, you may say to me, but in the 15th and 16th centuries they killed criminals, issuing the death sentence with the hope of going to heaven, there was a chaplain who sent you to heaven. I am thinking of the great Fr. Cafasso there at the gallows. but this was another anthropology, a different culture. We cannot think like this today. Life sentences are so cold, they are death sentences in disguise. But what happens when a person cannot be guaranteed reintegration due to their mental state? There are forms of reintegration through work, culture, that involves some form of confinement but they need to be made to feel of use to society whilst being kept under surveillance, but their soul changes: this is no longer a person who has committed a crime, a criminal, but someone who has turned their life around and is doing something in prison that allows them to reintegrate and they feel a different form of dignity."
The grace of humour
"A sense of humour is a grace I ask for every day and I pray that beautiful prayer by St. Thomas More: 'Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humour'; I ask for the ability to laugh when I'm told a joke...: it's a beautiful prayer. Because a sense of humour is uplifting, it helps you to see the provisional element of life and to take things with the lightness of a liberated spirit. It is a human attitude but it is the attitude closest to God's grace. I once met a priest - a great priest, a great pastor - who had a great sense of humour but he did a great deal of good with that too, because he relativised things: "God is the Absolute but he can sort himself out, it's doable... don't worry..." (...) It's that capacity to be a child before God. Praise the Lord with a smile and a tasteful joke."
I am alergic to flatterers, I deserve detractors
"I am alergic to flatterers. It comes naturally eh? Flattery is not a virtue. Flattering another person is to use antoher perosn for a hidden or obvious reason but it is used to obtain something for oneself. It is also shameful. In Argentina we call flatterers "sock lickers" (boot-lickers, Ed.)... When I receive praise, even when it is for something that has gone well, you know straight away when the person praising you is praising God, "that's good, well done, keep up the good work, that's the way it's done!" or whether they are being oleaginous... Detractors speak ill of me and I deserve it because I am a sinner: that's the way I see it. That doesn't worry me."
The Prodigal Son's elder brother and rigidity
"The elder son was morally rigid: 'He spent all his money on a life of sin, he doesn't deserve to be welcomed'. Rigidity means always adopting the role of a judge. This rigidity is not typical of Jesus. Jesus reproaches the doctors of the church, he is very much against rigidity. There is an adjective that describes such people, which I would not like to have directed at me: hypocrits. Just read chapter 23 of Matthew's Gospel: "Hypocrit". These people theorise about mercy saying justice is important. In God - and in Christians since it is in God - justice is merciful and mercy is just. The two go hand in hand: they are one thing (...) After the sermon on the Mount, in Luke's Gospel, comes the sermon on the Plain. And how does it end? Be emrciful like the father. It does not say: be just like the Father. But it's the same thing! Justice and mercy in God are one thing. Mercy is just and justice is merciful. The two cannot be separated. When Jesus forgives Zaccheus and has lunch with sinners, forgives Mary Magdalene, gorgives the adulterous woman, forgives the Samaritan, what is he? Overgenerous? No. He is imparting God's justice, which is merciful."
The disease of "cardiosclerosis"
"I will use a word I learnt from an elderly priest (...) He taught me a word about the disease of this world, of this era, of this time: cardiosclerosis. I believe mercy is a remedy against this disease, which is the root cause of this throwaway culture: 'We don't need him or her, this elderly person, send them to the old age home; this child that's on the way, no, no, no, return to sender..." and so these people are discarded. 'No, we need to drag this city into the war, and what about that other one?' -'Oh yes, let's drop bombs wherever, on hospitals, schools'."
For a more merciful world
Think about this third world war we are experiencing, this piecemeal third world war; arms are sold and they are sold by manufacturers and arms traffickers. And they are sold to both sides int he war because there's a lot of money to be made through arms trafficking... Here there is a serious hardheartedness, tenderness is lacking. 'But, God...": Let us pause there. God became tender, he approached us. Paul says to the Philippians: "Jesus emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,being made in human likeness." When we speak of Christ, let us not forget the flesh of Christ. This world needs this tenderness that tells the flesh to touch the suffering flesh of Christ and put an end to suffering! I think warring States need to take stock of the fact that a life is worth a great deal, instead of saying': 'But one life doesn't count for anything, I'm interested in the territory, this is what I'm interested in..." A life is worth more than territory!"
The secret to keeping up with endless commitments
"I don't know how I manage, but... I pray: This helps me a great deal. I pray. Prayer helps me, it means being with the Lord. I celebrate mass, I pray the Breviary, I speak with the Lord, pray the rosary... I find prayer very helpful. It also helps me sleep well: this is a grace from the Lord. I sleep like a log. The day the earthquake struck I didn't feel a thing eh? Everyone felt the bed tremble... No, really, I sleep six hours but like a log. Maybe this helps me in terms of my health. I have my own share of problems you know? I have a problem with my spinal column but it's ok at the moment. I do what I can, I don't overexert myself: in that sense, I do pace myself a bit."
TradCatKnight Radio: "2016: The Year of Pseudo-Mercy"