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CV NEWS FEED // In a wide-ranging interview this week, Pope Francis expressed his hope that Catholics around the world will “gradually” accept Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican document that opened the blessing to “irregular” couples and same-sex couples under certain circumstances.
In an interview published on January 29 by the Italian daily La Stampa, Pope Francis was asked about the world-wide pushback against the document released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Journalist Domenico Agasso pointed in particular to the case of the African Bishops, who have collectively rejected the implementation of the document.
“Those who protest vehemently belong to small ideological groups,” Francis responded. The Pontiff said that Africans are “a special case,” because “for them homosexuality is something ‘bad’ from a cultural point of view, they don’t tolerate it”.
“But in general, I trust that gradually everyone will be reassured by the spirit of the Fiducia Supplicans declaration by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith: it aims to include, not divide,” Francis said. “It invites people to welcome and then entrust people, and entrust themselves to God.”
He also dismissed the idea that traditionalists may break away from the Catholic Church. “In the Church, there are small groups that have manifested ideas of schismatic color,” he admitted, but “you have to let them go and pass… and look forward.”
The interview covered a wide range of subjects, from the war in Gaza to his traveling plans for 2024. Regarding his health, Pope Francis said that despite some “aches and pains” he had to address in 2023, he feels “much better now.”
