“God is a father and does not deny any of his children. And God’s style is closeness, mercy and tenderness. The heart is open to each individual. He is a father. Love does not divide, but unites”.
This is what the Pope says when he talks about gay people in the book “Fear as a Gift” (with Salvo Noé, Edizioni San Paolo) due out next week.
Bringing psychology into the seminars “I think is very useful. Everything that has happened, the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy, has dramatically highlighted this problem. Before being ordained to the priesthood, we must recognize if there are tendencies to abuse,” he says the Pope after what we read in the book. “If these problems are not recognized, they can have devastating effects. The seminary – stresses Pope Francis – is neither a sanctuary for the many limitations we may have, nor a sanctuary for psychological weaknesses.”
Aside from the scourge of abuse, “the greatest perversion in the Church today is that of priesthood and worldliness. Worldliness leading to vanity, arrogance, pride. Worldliness kills, as I once said, a worldly priest is a clericalized pagan,” Francis says again in the book.
The Pope admits that he too is afraid of making mistakes. “Sometimes yeah, when I have to make a decision, I say to myself, ‘If I do it like this…?’. It’s a bit scary to make a mistake, isn’t it?! And fear in this case helps me because it makes me weigh carefully the decisions I should make, how to do it and all the rest. It’s not the fear that destroys me, no no… it’s a feeling that makes me aware: Fear is like a mother who warns you.” Francis says this in dialogue with Salvo Noè in the book “Fear as a Gift” (San Paolo editions), due out next week.
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