Pope’s interview to Italian daily

March 05,2014Close to the first anniversary of his election as bishop of Rome, Pope Francis describes himself as, “A man who laughs, cries, sleeps well and has friends like everyone else.” It is theself-description the Holy Father offered to the editor-in-chief of the Italian daily, Corriere della sera, Ferruccio De Bortoli, in an interview published in the paper’s March 5th edition. The Pope’s wide-ranging conversation with the veteran journalist covered themes from bioethics, to styles and modes of Church governance, to his friendship with, and esteem for his predecessor, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI. Some of the strongest remarks concerned the role of women in the Church. “It is true that women can and ought to be more present in the places where the Church’s decisions are made. This, however, I would call a promotion of a ‘functional’ type, he explained.
Asked whether it might perhaps be time to take up once again the question of artificial means of birth control, Pope Francis praised his predecessor, Paul VI, who authored the encyclical Humanae Vitae, saying, “His genius proved prophetic: he had the courage to stand against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to exercise ‘brake’ on the culture, to oppose both present and future neo-Malthusianism. The Holy Father went on to explain, “The question is not that of changing doctrine, but of going into the depths, and ensuring that pastoral efforts take into account people’s situations, and that which is possible for people to do.
Source: VIS