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CV NEWS FEED // In a recent interview with CBS 60 Minutes, Pope Francis reaffirmed Church doctrine on the immorality of surrogacy and discussed other topics including immigration and blessings for same-sex couples.
The interview had very few follow-up questions that seemed scripted because CBS’ Norah O’Donnell had a set of prepared questions in English – a language Pope Francis does not understand or speak – while the Pontiff responded in Spanish. His answers were later dubbed in English by CBS.
“In regard to surrogate motherhood, in the strictest sense of the term, no, it is not authorized. Sometimes surrogacy has become a business, and that is very bad. It is very bad,” Pope Francis told O’Donnell in the interview, which was broadcast on May 19.
“But sometimes for some women it is the only hope,” O’Donnell said.
She mentioned that she knows women who are cancer survivors who can no longer have children.
“It could be. The other hope is adoption,” Pope Francis said. “I would say that in each case the situation should be carefully and clearly considered, consulting medically and then morally as well.”
“I think there is a general rule in these cases, but you have to go into each case in particular to assess the situation, as long as the moral principle is not skirted,” he continued. He added that he appreciated O’Donnell’s concern for these women, and said that it shows she has compassion.
In January, during his address to global ambassadors at the Vatican, Pope Francis denounced surrogacy as “despicable” and called for the practice to be banned on a global scale. He also emphasized that “[a] child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, CBS last week published a clip previewing the 60 Minutes Interview, highlighting a question from O’Donnell about conservative American bishops.
“There are conservative bishops in the United States that oppose your new efforts to revisit teachings and traditions. How do you address their criticism?” O’Donnell asked Pope Francis.
According to the full transcript, Pope Francis responded, “You used an adjective, ‘conservative.’ That is, conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”
At another point in the interview, O’Donnell told Pope Francis that “the state of Texas is attempting to shut down a Catholic charity on the border with Mexico that offers undocumented migrants humanitarian assistance,” and asked for his response.
“That is madness. Sheer madness,” Pope Francis said. “To close the border and leave them there, that is madness. The migrant has to be received. Thereafter you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely. Right?”
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O’Donnell also asked about “Fiducia Supplicans,” the declaration that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published in December 2023 about blessings for same-sex couples and couples living in irregular situations.
“Last year you decided to allow Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples,” O’Donnell said. “That’s a big change. Why?”
“No, what I allowed was not to bless the union. That cannot be done because that is not the sacrament. I cannot. The Lord made it that way,” Pope Francis responded:
But to bless each person, yes. The blessing is for everyone. For everyone. To bless a homosexual-type union, however, goes against the given right, against the law of the Church. But to bless each person, why not? The blessing is for all. Some people were scandalized by this. But why? Everyone! Everyone!
In another segment of the interview, O’Donnell commended Pope Francis for his pontificate’s efforts to reform the Church and address the child sexual abuse crimes committed by clergy, and asked, “Has the church done enough?”
“It must continue to do more,” Pope Francis answered. “Unfortunately, the tragedy of the abuses is enormous. And against this, an upright conscience and not only to not permit it but to put in place the conditions so that it does not happen.”
He later added that abuse “cannot be tolerated. When there is a case of a religious man or woman who abuses, the full force of the law falls upon them. In this there has been a great deal of progress.”
