with each one giving witness to their own faith, trying to understand each other, of course. But today, above all, closeness is urgently needed, a need to step out of our comfort zone in order to resolve the terrible problems that exist in today’s world. I believe that the different religions or the different denominations—I prefer to speak about different denominations—cannot sleep peacefully as long as there is even one child who is dying of hunger, one child who goes without an education, one young person or one elderly person who goes without medical attention. Nevertheless, the work of these religions, these denominations is not one of charity. This is true. As regards at least our Catholic faith, our Christian faith, we will be judged by these works of mercy.
It will serve no purpose to talk about our theologies if we do not have the closeness to others to go out to help and support others, especially in this world where so many people are falling from the tower and no one is saying anything.
Thank you, Pope Francis. Thank you for the interview and for your message for Brazil.
I thank you for your kindness. This is a wonderful people. Wonderful!
In spite of the cold weather that welcomed you?
No, I’m from the south. I’m familiar with the cold weather in Buenos Aires. This is normal autumn weather.
So you’re not amazed by the cold? Brazil is more tropical than Argentina. Didn’t you expect Brazil to be a little warmer?
No. Maybe I did expect it to be a bit warmer, but I haven’t felt the cold.
Chapter Three
Radio Catedral
For a More Humane Culture
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Pope Francis made a brief visit to the studios of Radio Catedral. But he chose his words carefully and spoke about solidarity, one of the pillars of Catholic social teaching, and on the connected theme of the dangers of a “throwaway culture.” As he admonishes his listeners, “Solidarity includes everyone.”
After lunch with the bishops of Brazil, Pope Francis visited the studios of Radio Catedral in Rio de Janeiro, where he spoke the following words, the Italian translation of which appeared in the July 29-30, 2013, edition of L’Osservatore Romano.
Hello and good afternoon to all my listeners. I thank you for listening, and I also thank the staff of this radio station for their kindness in inviting me to speak on air.
As I thank them, I am looking around this radio station and I see that the means of communication are very important today. I would have to say that a radio station, a Catholic radio station, is the most immediate pulpit that we have today. Here, through radio, we can proclaim human values, religious values, and, above all, we can proclaim Christ Jesus the Lord. We can be gracious enough to make room for the Lord among the affairs of our daily life.
So, I greet you and I thank you for all the efforts this archdiocese is making to have and maintain a radio station with such a large network. I ask all the listeners to pray for me, to pray for this radio station, to pray for your bishop, to pray for the archdiocese, so that all of us can join in prayer and can work, as the priest said a moment ago, for a more humane culture that is richer in values and that excludes no one.
Let us all work for that word which is unpopular today: solidarity. It is a word that people always try to put aside, because it is irksome. Yet it is a word that reflects the human and Christian values that are required of us today—as the priest said a moment ago—in order to counter a throwaway culture, according to which everything is disposable, a culture that always leaves people out of the equation. It leaves children out, it leaves young people out, it leaves the elderly out, and it leaves out all who are of no use, who do not produce. But this must not be! On the contrary, solidarity includes everyone. You must continue to work for this culture of solidarity and for the Gospel.
Question on the importance of the family:
Not only would I say that the family is important for the evangelization of the new world. The family is important and it is necessary for the survival of humanity. Without the family, the cultural survival of the human race would be at risk. The family, whether we like it or not, is the foundation.
Chapter Four
The Flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome
Pope Francis’s Meeting with Journalists
Sunday, July 28, 2013
The in-flight press conference from Rio de Janeiro back to Rome was both a surprise to the journalists on board and to the wider world. Having declared initially his reluctance to grant interviews, Pope Francis dedicated ninety minutes to answering questions on a wide-ranging set of topics, including the reform of the Roman Curia, the role of women in the Church, mercy, and even what his biggest surprise had been so far as pope.
The encounter with the journalists became the first major press event of the pontificate as the world’s media focused heavily on the pope’s comments regarding the need to reform the central government of the Church and the presence of a supposed “gay lobby” in the Vatican. One line, above all, caused an international sensation: “Who am I to judge?” The context of Pope Francis’s full meaning, of course, shows something very different from the assumptions of the secular press, but it was a taste of controversies to come.
Note, too, the way that Pope Francis anticipated the key issues facing the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (to be held in 2014), with its sometime volcanic discussions of Communion for the divorced and remarried.
Father Federico Lombardi
My dear friends, we are delighted to have the Holy Father, Pope Francis, with us on this return flight. He has been gracious enough to allow plenty of time to assess his visit with us and to respond in complete freedom to your questions. I shall ask him to give us a brief introduction, and then we will begin with the list of those who have asked to speak and whom we have chosen from various nationalities and languages. So, we turn the microphone over to you, Your Holiness, for your words of introduction.
Pope Francis
Good evening, and thank you very much. I am pleased. It has been a good trip. It has been good for me spiritually. I am quite tired, but my heart is full of joy. I am well, really well. Indeed, it has been good for me spiritually. Meeting people is good for me because the Lord works in each one of us, he works in our hearts. The Lord’s riches are so great that we can always receive many wonderful things from others. And this does me a lot of good. This is my first assessment.
Second, I would say that the goodness, the hearts of the Brazilian people are big, very big. They are a very loving people, a people who like to celebrate, who always find a way to seek out the good somewhere, even amidst suffering. This, too, is good: They are a joyful people, and they have suffered a lot. The joy of the Brazilian people is contagious. It really is! And these people have big hearts.
As regards the
