Pope Francis: "I'm fine, but I know that some prelates were already preparing the Conclave"

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September 21, 2021I am "still alive. Although some wanted me dead. I know that there have even been meetings between prelates who thought the Pope was more serious than what was said. They were preparing the conclave. Patience! Thank God, I'm fine. ". The Pope said this in the conversation with the Jesuits that took place on his recent trip to Slovakia about the recent surgery he underwent. "Making that intervention - continued the Pontiff - was a decision I didn't want to make: it was a nurse who convinced me. Sometimes nurses understand the situation more than doctors because they are in direct contact with patients".

The Pope - in the conversation published by Civiltà Cattolica and anticipated by La Stampa - also spoke of the criticisms he receives. "For example, there is a large Catholic television that continually gossip about the Pope without posing any problems. I personally can deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the Church does not deserve this: it is the work of the devil. I also have it. said to some of them. Yes, there are also clerics who make nasty comments about me. I sometimes lack patience, especially when they make judgments without entering into a real dialogue. There I can do nothing. however I go on without going into their world of ideas and fantasies. I don't want to go into it and that's why I prefer to preach ". Some criticisms also concern the recent decision on the Latin Mass: "Now - explains the Pope - I hope that with the decision to stop the automatism of the ancient rite we can return to the true intentions of Benedict XVI and John Paul II. My decision is the fruit of a consultation with all the bishops of the world made last year. From now on, anyone who wants to celebrate with the vetus ordo must ask Rome for permission ".

"The suffering of the Church at this moment" is "the temptation to go back", "it is a form of ideological colonization. It is not a truly universal problem, but rather specific to the Churches of some countries. Life scares us", " freedom scares us. In a world that is so conditioned by addictions and virtuality, it scares us to be free ". The Pope said this in his meeting with the Jesuits on his recent trip to Slovakia. "Today we go back to the past to seek security. It scares us to celebrate in front of the people of God who look us in the face and tell us the truth. It scares us to go forward in pastoral experiences. I think of the work that has been done, Father Spadaro was here I'm,at the Synod on the family to make it clear that couples in second union are not already condemned to hell - underlined Pope Francis. It scares us to accompany people with sexual diversity "," rigidity "and" clericalism "are" two perversions ".

For the Pope, however, "the ideology of 'gender' is dangerous" because "it is abstract with respect to the concrete life of a person, as if a person could decide abstractly at will whether and when to be a man or a woman. For me, abstraction is always a problem. This has nothing to do with the homosexual question - continued the Pope -, however. If there is a homosexual couple, we can do pastoral care with them, go forward in the encounter with Christ. ideology, I speak of the idea, of the abstraction for which everything is possible, not of the concrete life of people and their real situation ".

Monsignor Jan Babjak, metropolitan archbishop of the city of Presov (Slovakia) for Catholics of the Byzantine rite, is positive about Covid 19. This was reported by sources from the archdiocese of Presov. During the Pope's recent trip to Slovakia, he concelebrated with him on 14 September. Babjak, 67, is vaccinated; he is now in quarantine at his home.