And the Pope said, "God forgives with a caress not a decree"
It is published the book-length interview with Pope Francis by the Vatican correspondent of La Stampa

andrea tornielli
Vatican CITY

http://www.lastampa.it/2016/01/10/vaticaninsider/e-il-papa-mi-disse-dio-perdona-non-con-Jo4Ry8ZjQzAfSnUxB4HGkJ/pagina.html

On March 13, 2015, as I listened to the homily of the penitential liturgy, after which Pope Francis was about to announce the extraordinary Holy Year, I thought it would be nice to pose to him some questions focused on the issues of mercy and forgiveness, to deepen what those words had meaning for him, as a man and as a priest. Without the worry of getting some catch phrase that entered the media debate around the synod on the family, often reduced to a derby between rival fans. I liked the idea of ​​an interview from which emerges the heart of Francis, his gaze. A text that would leave open the doors, in the past, like the Jubilee, during which the Church intends to show in a particular way, and even more significantly, his face of mercy.

The Pope has accepted the proposal. This book, "The name of God is Mercy," is the result of a conversation started in the living room of his home, in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, in a afosissimo afternoon last July, a few days after returning from the trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. I had sent with very little advance a list of issues and questions that I wanted to deal with. I showed up in Santa Marta and having three recorders, two digital and one with the old micro-cassette. It had already happened in December 2013, then at the end of the interview published in La Stampa, to press the wrong key and lose an audio file (even then I was fortunately in possession of a second device). Francis was waiting for me holding in front of him on the table, a concordance of the Bible and of the quotations of the Church Fathers. He immediately asked me to take off my jacket, given the heat, to put me more at ease.

Then I realized that I had a notebook or legal pad, but only a small notebook where I had marked questions. And he offered to go get the white sheets. We talked a lot, he answered every question. He spoke through examples related to his experience as a priest and bishop, telling example of the husband of his niece, he divorced remarried then still waiting for the declaration of nullity of the first marriage, who went to confession every week to talk the priest, while anticipandogli always: "I know she do not perform." He recounted the pain experienced at the time of death of Father Carlos Duarte Ibarra, the confessor accidentally met in the parish on Sept. 21, 1953, the day when the Church celebrates St. Matthew the Evangelist. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was seventeen, and it was at that meeting that he felt surprised by God and decided to embrace a religious vocation and priesthood.

The evening of the funeral of Father Duarte, which took place a year after that, the future Pope had "cried so much, hidden in my room," "because I had lost a person who made me feel God's mercy." I was particularly impressed with the few words with which he replied to a question about his famous phrase, "Who am I to judge?", Called on the return flight from Rio de Janeiro in July 2013 on the subject of gay. The Pope stressed the importance of always speak of "homosexuals," because "there is the first person, in its entirety and dignity. And the person is not defined only by his sexual orientation. " As well, the distinction between sinful and corrupt, which is not primarily concerned with the amount or severity of the acts committed, but the fact that the first humbly acknowledges that this and continually asks for forgiveness in order to raise, while the second "is high a system, it becomes a habit of mind, a way of life. " Or the words with which Pope Bergoglio speaks of his meetings with the prisoners, and how you feel better than them, "Every time opening the door of a prison for a visit, I always thought: why them and not me?".

In its replies Francis spoke repeatedly of the importance of feeling small, needy, sinners. I hope that the respondent did not take offense if I reveal in this respect, a little background. He was talking about the difficulty recognize our sins, and in the first draft I had prepared, Francis said: "The medicine there, there is healing, if only move a small step toward God." After re-reading the text, he called me and asked me to add: "... or at least we have the desire to move", an expression that I had clumsily dropped into the work of synthesis. In this addition, or rather in this text properly restored, there is the whole heart of the shepherd who seeks to conform to God's heart and leaves no stone unturned to get to the sinner. Do not neglect them relenting, albeit minimal, to be able to give forgiveness. God says in the book Francis, awaits us with open arms, we just take a step towards him like the Prodigal Son in the Gospel parable. But if we do not have the strength to do even this, as we are weak, just the least desire to do so. It's a start simply, because grace and mercy can operate to be given, according to the experience of a Church that is not conceived as a customs house, but try every possible way to forgive.

Francis said in one of the homilies of Santa Marta: "How many of us perhaps put in a sentence! It would also be right. But He forgives. " As? "By the mercy that does not erase the sin is only God's forgiveness that deletes, while mercy is over." It is "like the sky: we look at the sky, many stars, but when the sun in the morning, with plenty of light, the stars are not seen. So is the mercy of God: a great light of love, of tenderness, because God forgives not by decree, but with a caress. "

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IZAKOVIC