VATICAN CORNER
Con”nued …The new book: THE NAME OF GOD IS MERCY, comes from a four hour interview last summer when Pope Francis answered ques”ons from Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli. The ques”ons were on issues linked by the common thread of mercy, described by Francis as “God’s iden”ty card”. The book incorporates anecdotes from his youth and his experiences as a priest. It is considered by many to be a summary of Francis’ teaching and papacy. It offers a reflec”on on an urgently needed public virtue, has some firm, but kindly pushback against his cri”cs and gives the reason for his calling the Year of Mercy. He lets us see how he came to be the man he is with his most profound and shaping instruc”on occurring on the priest’s side of the confessional screen, where he heard litanies of suffering, failure, despair and sin. Francis saying “When I heard confessions, I always thought about myself, about my own sins, and about my need for mercy, and so I tried to forgive a great deal. As a confessor”, he says, “even when I have found myself before a locked door, I have always tried to find a crack, just a “ny opening, so that I can pry open that door and grant forgiveness and mercy.” In the book Pope Francis chas”ses “scholars of the law” who “live a!ached to the le!er of the law but who neglect love; men who only know how to close doors and draw boundaries.” Instead, he urges people to think of the church as “a field hospital, where treatment is given above all to those who are most wounded.” He says: of the poor, the homeless and those “immigrants who have survived the crossing and who land on our shores, we touch the flesh of Christ in he who is outcast, hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, ill, unemployed, persecuted, in search of refuge.” On the controversial topics of homosexuality and divorce, he proposes no doctrinal changes but, as in earlier statements and interviews, urges that the church take a welcoming approach to all — embracing understanding, tolerance and compassion. Asked about homosexuality he repeats his much-quoted remark “Who am I to judge,” adding that “before all else comes the individual person, in his wholeness and dignity.” One of the book’s biggest promoters is the Oscar-winning comic actor / director Roberto Benigni (Life is Beau”ful) who appeared with others at the book launching celebra”on with Pope Francis. He said of Pope Francis: “He is bringing the Church, with all his strength, to a place we have almost forgo!en. We don’t remember it. He is taking us to Chris”anity, to Jesus Christ, to the Gospel. He is launching the Church toward Chris”anity. It is something incredible: The religion of the humanity of God, the divinity of man. He is bringing it. And how is he doing it? Through mercy.”
Sources: News.VA, newyorker.com, romereports.com, ny”mes, ap.org