During his return flight the Pontiff denounced the hypocrisy of those who call for peace and foment war – Words are not enough
During the flight to
Rome, Pope Francis met with journalists in a press conference. Fr Federico
Lombardi introduced the meeting and journalists followed with their questions.
The following is the Englist text of the transcription of the meeting.
[Silvije Tomaševi?]
Good evening, Your Holiness. As one
might expect, many Croats came as pilgrims to Sarajevo, and want to know if Your
Holiness is coming to Croatia… But since we are in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
there is also great interest concerning a declaration on the phenomenon of
Medjugorje…
In regard to the issue
of Medjugorje, Pope Benedict XVI at the time convened a committee presided over
by Cardinal Camillo Ruini; there were other Cardinals, theologians and
specialists on the committee as well.
They did an investigation and Cardinal Ruini came to me and gave me the
study they did, after many years of labour, I don’t know, maybe three of four
years, more or less. They did a fine job, a fine job indeed. Cardinal Müller (Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith) told me that he would be having a feria
quarta (a meeting dedicated to this specific question) at the right time; I
think it was done on the last Wednesday of the month. But I am not sure… We are close to coming to
a decision. And then the results will be
communicated. For the moment, all that
is being done is to give guidelines to the bishops, but along the lines that
will be taken. Thank you!
[Silvije Tomaševi?] And
your visit to Croatia?
A visit to
Croatia? I don’t know when that will
be. But I remember that you mentioned to
me when I went to Albania: “The first European country you are visiting does
not belong to the European Community”, to which I replied, “It is a sign. I wish the first countries that I visit in
Europe, be the smallest countries, and the Balkans are martyred countries, they
have suffered so much!” They have
suffered much. And thus my preference
lies here. Thank you.
[Anna Chiara Valle] You
spoke of those who deliberately stir up an atmosphere of war, and then you said
to the young people that there are those world leaders who speak openly of
peace while selling weapons under the table.
Would you like to explain this concept a little more…
Sure: there’s always
hypocrisy! Thus I said that it is not
enough just to talk about peace, one must also work for peace! And the one who only talks about peace but
doesn’t work for it is contradicts himself; and the one who speaks of peace
while promoting war, for example, through the selling of weapon, is a
hypocrite. It’s that simple…
[Katia Lopez] Holy Father, during your last meeting, with
the youth, you spoke in great detail about the need to pay careful attention to
what they read, to what they watch: you did not mention explicitly the word
“pornography”, but you did refer to “evil fantasy”. Could you explain somewhat the concept of the
waste of time…
There are two different
things here: the medium and the content.
Concerning the medium, there is one thing that hurts the soul and that
is, to be too attached to computers. Too
attached to the computer! This damages
the soul and takes away freedom: it makes you a slave of the computer. It’s curious: many mothers and fathers tell
me that, in their families, they are together at the dining table with their
children but the children have their telephones and are in another world. It’s true that the virtual language is a
reality and we cannot ignore it; but we must direct it in the right way,
because it does represent human progress.
But when this leads us away from a common life, from family life, from
social life, and also from sports, from the arts, and we are glued to our computer…
this is a psychological illness. I am
sure of it! Secondly, the question of
content. Yes, there are dirty things,
from various degrees of pornography, to empty and valueless shows, such as
relativistic, hedonistic, consumerist ones, which foment these things. We know that consumerism is a cancer on
society, that relativism is a cancer on society. I will speak about this in the forthcoming
encyclical, to be published this month.
I don’t know if I have answered your question. I used the word “filth” in a general way, but
we all know this. There are parents who
are so concerned that they do not allow their children to have computers in
their room; the computers must be in a common area of the house. These are small ways that help parents to
avoid precisely this problem.
The Pontiff then added:
Thank you for your
work, for all your efforts on this visit…
Thank you very much for all you do, thank you! And pray for me. Thank you.
Responding to a
question from Caroline Pigozzi on the possibility of a visit in France, the
Pope said:
Yes, yes, I have it in
mind to go to France. I promised as much
to the Bishops.